TDI: New Chance
by CrimsonLeo18
Summary: A game for a million dollars is about to begin. As 24 contestants fight, strategize, and lie their way to the top; anything can happen. *Warning: Possible changes in the original order of elimination.* Two O.C.'s introduced to the story line*. Rated T and meant for people in their teens. I OWN NOTHING!
1. Chapter 1: The Game Begins

**I OWN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING RELATED TO THIS SHOW OR MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN IT. SOME THINGS MAY CHANGE, SUCH AS THE ORDER OF ELIMINATED CHARACTERS AND THE SYMBOLIZATION OF THEIR SAFETY. THE ONLY THINGS I DO OWN ARE THE IDEAS TO TWO CHARACTERS: ELIZA AND JESSE. EVERYTHING ELSE IS BASED OFF OF MY OWN IMAGINATION AND HOW I BELIEVE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE STORY WILL REACT. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE STORY AT SOME POINT, THEN YOU MAY FILE YOUR COMPLAINTS IN THE REVIEWS AND I WILL IMPROVE ON MY LACKING IDEAS. ALL ORIGINAL CREDIT FOR THIS SHOW GOES TO TELETOON AND ITS ASSOCIATED CO-CREATORS.**

Chapter 1: The Game Begins

Jesse POV (Point Of View)

 **Day 1**

I stretch out the grogginess in me as I wake up from a long nap at sea and not knowing where to go. It's been a long voyage since Arizona and I'm still not sure where this game is going to take place. I had recently signed up to be part of a reality game TV show called "Total Drama Island", but all that I know is that it's some kind of battle with 23 other people as we try to win a huge prize. For the past few days, I've been on a yacht that has the guest room of a cruise ship and I occasionally hear some kind of tribal music. I assume it's the theme song for the show when it airs in the real world. It sounds like chanting of an island-living ancient civilization mixed with deep throat-ed singing and a couple of words I can't quite place. At that moment there is an announcement through my room.

"Attention, please leave the premises and report to the ships' deck. It's time to begin the competition."

When I hear those words, I gather the black duffel bag that's as big as me. It has all the things I brought with me and a few "fun items" I was allowed to bring.

 _Wait, what is everyone going to be like? What if they're all master strategists?_

These thoughts make me feel nervous and I try to relax because I have no idea what the other people are going to be like or what they'll be planning behind the scenes. I take a few deep breaths and get my game face on. I walk out onto the deck and I see a dock connected to the boat. I step onto the dock and as I do, I hear the boat starting to leave. I try to make out where I am, and it looks like an island, which is what I was thinking about when I was listening to that music. Out of the blue, I see a camera in my face and take a step backwards when I do. The cameraman seems to be motioning me to move to my left and I see someone who appears to be in charge. This guys' picture was in the contract information I had signed when I first applied. I think his name was Chris something-or-other. He must be the host for the show. I don't really have anything to worry about with him around.

"Jesse, welcome to the game, dude."

"Thanks, it's good to meet ya. To be honest, I'm a little nervous about all this."

"Reality TV jitters, huh? I've been there. Just relax, hombre. You've got all the time you need to get used to this stuff."

"Alright. I guess this game won't be so hard if I'm calm."

"That's the spirit! Now go ahead and wait at the other end of the dock as the rest of the cast comes in."

"Sure." _I guess that means I'm the first one here. I wonder what everyone else will be like._

As I place my bag down, I see another boat coming in. I think all of these contestants came from different parts of the country; and that they all came on their own yacht. Something tells me I may be in for a long day. The next boat dropped off a girl. She looked like a free spirit chick who did her own thing. And she also had braces. She must have been part of the same crowd as me in high school.

"Beth. What's up?"

"It's so incredulous to meet you! Wow! You're much shorter in real life."

"Uh..., Thanks."

She seemed really happy to be here. She even waved to the camera after she made her comment to the host.

"Hi! Nice to meet you."

"Likewise. I'm Jesse."

"Jesse, huh? That's an interesting name; because it shows masculinity and femininity."

"Uh, thanks. It's nice to meet you Beth. I hope we can be good friends."

"Same here. Even if I don't win the prize, at least I won at life."

 _Hmm_ _... Good philosophy. I think she and I could work pretty well together._

"Look, Look, Look! Another boat!"

"Huh? Oh yeah. I wonder who we're meeting next."

The next boat dropped off a behemoth of a man. He appeared to be as big as a truck and considering the size of his luggage, he probably had the strength to pull one himself too.

"Yo, Chris McLean! How's it goin'? Hey, you sure you got the right place here? Where's the hot tub at?"

"Yo dawg, this is it. Camp Wawanakwa!"

When Chris finished explaining, I took a look around to see that he was right. This place look just like a summer camp for younger kids and their chaperones.

"Hm. Looked a lot different on the application form."

"You're telling me. I was sorta expecting something else. I'm not sure what, but something else."

"Like some kind of mansion that rich people normally live in?"

"Yeah girl, that's what I was thinking."

"No, I think it was more of an island village. I don't know, it's my imagination and even I don't understand it."

The other two started laughing. I wasn't sure if it was because of the joke I made or something else.

"Hahaha, that's funny man. At least this trip ain't all bad. I'm D.J.

"Jesse."

"I'm Beth. Nice to meet you."

When we got the pleasantries out of the way, another person came onto the dock. This one was a goth girl who was probably deep and moody.

"Hey Gwen!"

She didn't look very happy when she was looking around. I'm not really sure what to make of her as a player at the moment.

"You mean we're staying here?!"

"No, 'you're' staying here. My crib is an air-stream with A.C. that-a-way."

 _I guess being the host of an up and coming TV show comes with its' perks._

"I did not sign up for this."

"Actually, you did."

That was when Chris showed us a stack of papers. I think it was her contract so that he could show her the articles that she didn't understand. What Gwen did next completely shocked the rest of us. She took what I assumed to be her contract out of his hands, tore it to shreds, and threw the remaining pieces into the water. And the craziest part of it was she didn't look like she even cared of the consequences of her actions. But then, probably just to shut her up, Chris brought out another stack of papers.

"The great thing about lawyers is; they make lots of copies."

Meanwhile, Beth looked like she wanted to say something, but we were too wrapped up in what was happening to notice that her boat was already leaving.

"I am not staying here."

"Cool. I hope you can swim though, because your ride just left."

"Jerk."

"I tried to warn you that-"

At that moment I clasped Beth's mouth shut. The goth girl seemed sorta ticked off and Beth pointing something out probably wasn't gonna help.

"Did one of you guys just say something?"

"Nope, we didn't say anything. Hahahahaha."

She gave us a strong look for a brief second and then gave us the 'I'm watching you' sign with two fingers. Taking a sigh of relief so that Beth could take a gasp of fresh air. Maybe I was gonna have to be wary of someone after all. After that whole mess, another boat came in with a guy wearing an unbuttoned shirt and a cowboy hat. Judging by the way he was waving his arms, I'd say the hat was a sort of fashion statement and that he was just some kind of party animal looking for a good time. I don't think I'll have to worry about him too much. He jumped off the side of the boat, his luggage being thrown behind him and came up to the rest of us.

"Chris McLean. S'up man! It's an honor to meet you man!"

"The 'Geoff-ster'! Welcome to the island man.

"Thanks, man."

"They say 'man' one more time, I'm gonna puke."

This guy was telling us who he was, Jeff with a 'GEO' instead of a 'J', when another girl stepped onto the dock. For some reason, the cameraman was doing a close-up to her boots and moving up to her face. Is she supposed to be a supermodel?

"Everybody, this is Lindsey. Not too shabby."

"Hi~. Okay, you look so familiar."

"I'm Chris McLean."

She looked somewhat confused with Chris's reply. Either she didn't read the entire application or she isn't very good with memorizing facts.

"The host of the show."

"Oh, THAT"S where I know you from."

"Uhhhh... yeah."

"Hi there everyone, I'm Lindsey. It's really nice to meet you all and I hope we can be friends."

As she was introducing herself to us, I was starting to contemplate whether or not she was just playing dumb or if she was just one of those girls who focused more on being pretty than beefing up her brain.

" _Something tells me I won't need to worry about her either."_

After the next boat came, the girl who came off this time seemed really serious. The girl, whom Chris identified as Heather, had this feeling from her that she was probably someone I really shouldn't mess with.

"Hi! Looks like we're your new friends for the next few months."

Beth was trying to make friends with Heather, but when she got a little closer, Heather looked like she came into contact with a strange alien from another planet.

 _Oh jeez, she's one of 'those' girls isn't she?_

After everyone got to the end of the dock, another boat came up and this one seemed unique, to say the least. There was rock music being played on the deck and the guy coming in looked like he was part of a prison gang. He had a green Mohawk, a pointed collar, a skull shirt, and multiple ear, nose, and eyebrow piercings. I think I should avoid this guy at all costs, if I can.

"Duncan. Dude."

"I don't like surprises."

"Yeah, your parole officer warned me about that, man. He also told me to give him a holler anytime and have you return to juvie."

 _This guy's a criminal?! I need to be careful around him._

"Okay then." After words, he gave Heather what I assumed was a pick up call. "Meet you by the campfire gorgeous."

"Drop dead, you skeeze. I'm calling my parents. You cannot make me stay here."

At that moment, Chris flashed the contract again, and something told me that none of us were going anywhere without his say so. The next boat came up in a very unusual way. The next person was water skiing behind the boat in an effort to impress us.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler!"

Tyler was trying to wave to us, but as he did, he lost focus on what he was doing and wiped out; but not in the manner I expected. He did what I never expected out of a water wipe out. He skipped like a stone all the way to the dock until he hit the planks sending him into all of our luggage, which sent one of the suitcases into the water and drenched Heather in water, who was more concerned about her shoes than her getting wet.

"Wicked wipe out, man."

Tyler gave a thumbs up signaling that he was okay, but I wanted to get a better picture, so I pulled him out of the luggage and sure enough, he didn't even have a scratch on him.

"Hey, are you okay? That was a pretty big crash."

"Nah, I'm alright. Being a jock you tend to have a better strength against wipeouts like that. Name's Tyler. Nice to meetcha."

"Uh, Jesse. Nice to meet you too."

None of us even saw the next guy come in as we heard a slight wheezing noise coming from the other end of the dock. He seemed to be kind of nerdy with big glasses and was also lugging a keyboard along with his things."

"Welcome to camp, Harold."

This guy seemed very observant as he was looking around at so many other things like D.J. did.

"What's he looking at?"

"I think he's getting a look at the place. He probably feels like he got cheated or something."

"So you mean this show is at a crappy summer camp and not on some big stage or something?"

"You got it."

"Yes! That is so much more favorable to my skills."

 _Oh boy, this guy's probably gonna be the nerd that makes everyone feel really awkward._

As Harold took his place with the rest of us, another guy was dropped onto the dock. This one seemed kind of interesting, seeing as he was lugging guitar case with him.

"Contestant number 11 is Trent."

"Hey, good to meet you, man. Saw you on that figure skating show, nice work."

"Her, thanks man. I knew I rocked that show."

"I saw that. One of the guy dropped his partner on her head, so they got immunity that week."

"Lucky. I hope I get dropped on my head."

"Me too!

"So, this is it? Alrighty, then."

 _He probably meant the rest of us. Oh well, at least this guy seems normal._

Then Trent took his place with the rest of us. I could have been wrong, but I thought I saw Gwen smile as he was standing next to him. As the next boat came in, the girl who was on it was carrying a surfboard. I'm not sure, but I don't think those kinds of waves will be coming close to us anytime soon.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Alright, our surfer chick, Bridgette is here."

"Pfft, nice board. This ain't Malibu, honey."

"I thought we were going to be on a beach."

"We are."

As I looked around, there was a bit of sand that surrounded some parts of the island, but it didn't look like anywhere I would want to walk at sunset. Bridgette sighed as she accepted the reality of the situation. As she was walking, her surfboard bumped into the host and as we were trying to talk to her, she swung it around as if it were some sort of weapon.

"Okay, we've all met surfer girl. Can we get on with the show please?

"Someone missed their double cappuccino macchiato this morning."

"Get bent."

I looked around and realized that half of the cast was now here.

 _If this is how the other contestants are going to be like, I don't know how I'm going to stay sane._

The next boat brought a small guy with a sweater vest, who looked like he was good with puzzles, but probably had some things to work on in terms of physical strength.

"Our, ugh, next camper is Noah."

"You got my memo about my life-threatening allergies?"

"I'm sure someone did."

"Good, is this where we're staying?

"No, it's your mother's house, and we're throwing a party."

"Cute. Nice piercings, original. You do those yourself?

Things looked like they were going to get ugly as Noah, who was acting like a wise guy and a know-it-all, was getting into trouble with Duncan. Before I knew it, Duncan had Noah's lip in one hand and a seemingly unused needle in the other.

"Yeah, you want one?"

"Uhh, no thanks. Can I have my lip back please? Thanks."

 _This is going to be a very long game._

The next boat was coming into view as a girl was shouting to us and letting us know she was here. Harold seemed stricken with who she was and I could probably see why.

"What's up ya'll, Leshawna's in the house! Yo, baby. Hey, how you doing, how's it going. Feel free to quit now and save yo-selves the trouble cause I came to win. Oh what's up, my brotha? Gimme some sugar, baby."

The last part was for D.J., who didn't seem to know her, but maybe it was because they came from the same background. That was when Harold made a seemingly forward set of statements.

"I've never seen a girl like you in real life before."

"Excuse me?"

"You're real big. And loud."

"What did you say to me? Oh no you didn't! You have not seen anything yet. I'll show you big, baby."

At that point everyone else was either trying to stop a fight from breaking out or just stay out of it. I chose the latter option. Lashawna looked like she was ready to charge like a wild bull while Harold took a defensive karate stance and tried to chop her.

"Oh yeah, you want some of this? Well, come on then!"

"Alright campers, settle down!"

Everything seemed settled, but that was yet to be seen. The next boat was carrying two girls instead of one. They seemed to be wearing the same clothes, but there were major differences between the two. One of them was skinny and tanned and the other was pale and was a little, uh, on the "large side".

"Ladies. Sadie, Katie, welcome to your new home for the summer."

"Oh my gosh. Sadie, look! It's a summer camp."

"Okay! I always wanted to go to summer camp. Eeeeee!"

These girls looked like they were the best of friends. If one of them hadn't addressed the other by name, I don't think I could have ever told them apart. I was drawn out of my thoughts when the next boat dropped off a guy in a sweatshirt and a wool cap.

"Ezekiel. What's up, man?"

He looked up and pointed up at the sky, as if Chris was giving him some sort of pop quiz. I couldn't help but chuckle a little when I heard his answer.

"I think I see a bird."

"Okay. Look dude, I know you don't get out much. Been home-schooled your whole life, raised by freaky prairie people. Just don't say much and try not to get kicked off too early, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

As I scratched my head, I wasn't really sure what to make of this guy, and in all honesty, some of the other probably had questions too. We didn't really get the chance to ask as another boat came up and dropped off a guy who seemed to be the youngest out of all of us.

"Cody. The Code-ster. The Code-MIESTER."

"Dude, psyched to be here, man. I see the ladies have already arrived. Alright."

This guy looked like he was really here to find a girlfriend rather than competing in this game. He looked like he was about to say something to Leshawna, but she didn't even give him the chance.

"Save it, short stuff."

The next boat came and dropped off another girl, but she seemed completely different from the others. She seemed a lot stronger than the rest of the girls and even some of the guys. She looked like she could probably win a body builder contest hands down, and she didn't seem to be in a talkative mood either.

"Eva, nice. Glad you could make it."

Cody was offering her a high five, but she just ignored him and dropped her bag. When she did, I thought I had heard a metallic clanging of multiple heavy objects. It must have hurt Cody's foot, because he was hopping in place holding his foot.

"Ow. What's in there, dumbbells?"

"Yes."

The rest of us looked kind of intimidated by her, and Duncan was even trying to play hot potato with her towards D.J., since he was also muscular, but I don't think he wants to know her very well either.

"She's all yours, man."

Nobody saw the next boat come in, so we were all spooked by the amount of yelling that started coming from the other end of the dock. The next guy that came in seemed really excited, as if this show was already a huge success, and we didn't even start playing season 1 yet.

"WHOO-HOO! Chris! What's happening? Hahaha. This is awesome! WHOO-HOO!"

"Owen! Welcome!"

This guy looked like he loved food even more that I did, and my weight for my age is somewhat normal, considering that I occasionally exercise. He definitely seemed stronger than he looked though, because he could pick Chris up and hug him tightly like a teddy bear.

 _Is it just me, or did I hear a crackling sound coming from the host._

"Awesome to be here, man. Yeah! This is just so, so…..

"Awesome?"

"Yes! Awesome! Whoo! Are you gonna be on my team?"

"Oh I sure hope so."

Gwen seemed to be really sarcastic. She seems to at least be trying to make friends with Owen, but I'm not really sure if she really intends to align with anyone. Meanwhile, Owen was still whooping it up as another boat came in.

"You about finished?"

"Sorry, dude. I'm just so psyched."

"Cool. And here comes Courtney."

This girl seemed really mild mannered. She was waving at us politely as Chris took her hand as a means of assisting her onto the dock. She seemed nice, so maybe she'll be a good ally later on.

"Thank you. Hi, you must be the other contestants. It's really nice to meet you all."

"How's it going? I'm Owen."

"Nice to meet you Oh, Wow!"

Courtney seemed to be a little distracted as Owen was shaking her hand. When I turned to see the next boat coming in, I could see that she probably got distracted by the next guy who was coming in. As I looked around, it seemed that every single girl was enchanted by whatever he was doing to make himself seem interesting. Some were swooning, others stared, and I'm pretty sure that Sadie fainted.

 _I don't think I'll ever understand girls._

"This is Justin. Welcome to Total Drama Island."

"Thanks Chris. This is great."

"Just so you know, we picked you based entirely on your looks."

"I can deal with that."

This guy seemed to be an interesting sort of character if he can be put on this show for his looks alone. Owen tried to talk to him later on, but I was caught up in my own thoughts for the moment to make out what was going on.

 _If this guy is as smart as he is popular, I may have my work cut out for me. Okay, then. Game on!_

Another boat looked like it was coming in, and this one had a girl that was sporting a green jungle outfit. Maybe she'll be interesting too.

"Hey everyone, Izzy!

As she was running up to us and saying hello, she seemed to have forgotten about the boat's railing, tripped, and slammed her chin onto the side of the dock. Some of us were hissing at the pain she had from her injury, but Tyler made a statement that was a good case of irony.

"Ooh, that was bad. Hahaha."

 _You have no room to talk._

"Guys, she could be seriously hurt."

Courtney went to help Izzy onto the dock and after words, she shook the water off of her hair and said what was on her mind, which really confused me.

"Are you alright?"

"That felt so, ugh, good! Except for hitting my chin. This is summer camp? That is so cool. Do you have papier-mâché here? Are we having lunch soon?"

"That is a good call."

"One piece of business at a time. We still need to bring out our last camper."

I counted everyone standing here in my head and realized that he was right. Including me, there were 23 people who had been introduced. I started counting the numbers of each gender and realized that the last player was going to be a girl. The last boat came in and as they came onto the dock, I was right. She was a about 5 and a half feet tall, brunette with long and curled hair, and she was wearing a blue flowing shirt with long jeans and loafers.

Eliza POV

I walked onto the dock, and everything was so bright out. I needed to shield my eyes from the sun and once I got used to it, I saw so many other people on a dock. There was also a guy standing separately from everyone else, and I figured he had to be in charge.

"Last, but not least, Eliza. Welcome to the game."

"Thanks, it's good to meet you all."

I got a good look at everyone else, and I noticed a guy who seemed interesting. He was about 6 feet tall, had red hair as long as mine, and was wearing a red t-shirt with pale khaki shorts and black tennis shoes. He seemed kind of interesting, but I don't know, he could turn out to be my enemy. With all the others that were here, I got the feeling that this was going to be an interesting time.

"Now then, I'm sure you would like to know how the game will be played and knowledge of sleeping arrangements, but first thing's first. We need a group photo for the promos. Everyone on the end of the dock."

Right on cue, everyone started moving towards me and I was pushed around and bumped into so I didn't really know where to go. After everyone got into a pose, I made do with kneeling in front of everyone a body builder chick and a guy who made me nervous just by looking at him. I gave the camera my best smile and hoped this would be a good summer.

Jesse POV

"Jesse! Come on, dude!"

"Uh, okay!"

I thought it would be best for me to wait until everyone else got into their positions, so I stepped over some of the others and made do with sitting cross-legged in front of Trent and Noah, and to add my own bit of character, I gave a peace sign made of my extended thumb, pointer, and middle fingers while my ring finger and pinky were placed in a way as if they were pointing at the camera. All I could do was hope for a good game and an ever greater summer. When I thought my pose looked good enough, Chris jumped on Eliza's boat and started to take the picture.

"Okay! One, Two, Three…., oops. Okay, forgot the lens cap. Okay, hold that pose. One, two- oh, no wait; card's full. Hang on."

"Come on, man, my face is starting to freeze."

"Got it. Okay, everyone say 'Wawanakwa'."

"WAWANAKWA-AAAHHHH!"

Right when Chris took the picture, the dock capsized and everyone tumbled into the water. It felt like we were all getting put into a humanized washing machine and it took us a while to get to shore.

"Okay guys, dry off and meet at the campfire pit in 10."

Eliza POV

I didn't expect to get wet and smell like fish outside of Tennessee. We all got dried off and put the towels in a nice heap for whoever was doing laundry on this show. When we were done, we all walked as a group to the campfire to have the rest of the game explained to us. When we got there, Chris was waiting for us with a tin box, a couple of rolled up cloths, and a piece of paper on top of everything.

"Come on over guys. Take a seat on a stool or find a good place to stand."

We did what was asked of us and took a place where we were sure we could still see Chris. I tried to take a seat on a stump, but Jesse had already taken the last one. When he saw me, he offered me his seat, and chose to stand.

"Please, ma'am, allow me."

"What a gentleman."

 _And here I thought nice guys like him only existed in books or movies._

"Now then, this is camp Wawanakwa, your home for the summer. The campers sitting around you will be your cabin mates, your competition, and maybe even your friends, ya dig? The camper who manages to stay the longest on Total Drama Island without getting voted off will win a special prize. Now we didn't say what it would be in your interviews since we wanted to see what kind of people you were in real life and had you answer your questions as if you were playing for fun and a good challenge. It's time to reveal our grand prize."

Everyone was waiting in anticipation. I was on the edge of my stump and was about to fall off, but I was only focused on what Chris was going to say. Looking around I saw the same reaction and Leo had his hand over his mouth. He was probably trying to guess what the prize was, but he still wanted to hear it from the host himself.

"At the end of the show, the winner will receive-"

 _Don't pause in the middle of a sentence, we wanna know what it is already._

"ONE MILLION DOLLARS!"

There was a moment of silence, and then everyone started cheering like crazy. With that kind of money, I could give my parents and my sister a much better life than what they had before; and now that I know what's on the line, I'm willing to everything I can to win.

Jesse POV

In all honesty, the money does sound nice, but I really came here to see what I'm really capable of as a person. I have a few limitations than other people because of the way my brain is wired. Even so, I hope to prove a certain point and make my family and friends proud of me. Now I just had one last question; how are we all going to live together? Thankfully, someone already asked, but I think there was a dirty joke in there, and I really don't find those funny.

"Scuse me, what will the sleeping arrangements be? Because I like to request a bunk under her."

"They're not co-ed are they?"

"No, girls get one side of each cabin and dudes get the other."

"I just hope the boys don't get any ideas. Remember, people are watching; and I'm not just talking about Santa."

I couldn't help but laugh at what Eliza said. It definitely put the more immature guys in their place. I think it was important to set that tone too, considering that this could potentially be a family show.

"Excuse me, Kyle, can I have a cabin with a lake view since I'm the prettiest?"

(Face palm)

"Okay, you are, but that's not really how it works here; and it's "Chris".

I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to respond to that, but the next couple of comments sounded even crazier. At least Gwen was able to voice some of our opinions.

"I have to live with Sadie or I'll die."

"And I'll break out in hives. It's true."

"This cannot be happening."

"Aw, come on guys. It'll be fun. It's like a big sleepover."

"Well, I suppose it could be worse."

"Dude's got a point, at least you don't have to sleep next to him."

As the four of us turned to what Tyler was talking about, there was Duncan giving a deer a noogie. Does this guy have any respect for anything?

"Here's the deal; we're gonna split you into two teams. If I call your name out, go stand over there. Gwen, Trent, Heather, Cody, Lindsey, Beth, Jesse, Katie, Owen, Leshawna, Justin, and Noah."

As he called our names, we moved to the right side of the campfire. I think I have a pretty strong team, but I'm not sure who I should work with at the moment in terms of strategy. When we all got to our spot, Chris handed us one of the rolled up cloths.

"From this moment on, you are officially known as the Screaming Gophers."

"Yeah, I'm a gopher! WHOOO!

I looked at the unraveled cloth and sure enough, I saw the image of a gopher who was ready to fight and looked like it was screaming.

"Huh, that looks kinda cool."

"Wait. What about Sadie?"

"The rest of you over here; Geoff, Bridgette, D.J., Tyler, Sadie, Izzy, Eliza, Courtney, Ezekiel, Duncan, Eva, and Harold. Move, Move, Move, Move!"

Eliza POV

We all started moving to the left of the area, but Sadie was being as stubborn as an angry mule. She must have really wanted to be on the same team as Katie. Courtney and I tried to help her calm down and come over our new teams' side.

"But Katie's a gopher. I have to be a gopher!"

"Sadie, is it? Come on. It'll be okay."

"Yeah, she's right. Even if you're not always with Katie, you'll still be among friends, okay?"

"This is so unfair. I miss you Katie."

"Oh, I miss you too."

Chris handed us our cloth to show us what team we were on. If the other team was a bunch of gophers, what were we going to be? As Harold unraveled the cloth, I saw a big and angry fish and got my answer.

"You guys will officially be known as the Killer Bass."

"It's awesome. It's like… amazing."

"Well, at least now I can say I've been a fish on national TV."

Everyone laughed at what I had said and then Chris opened the tin container on the ground and showed us two bags in our team colors, red and green. Then he threw each bag to one member of each team, me and Jesse and when we opened them, we saw some kind of fluffy scarfs inside. No, scarf isn't the right word. It was more of a bandanna, but it was made out of cotton and it was stitched in a way that you didn't need to tie it around you. You just needed to wrap it around a part of yourself and it wouldn't come undone.

Jesse POV

I wasn't sure of what to make of these new bandana things we were given, but their design looked really cool. There were flowers and trees on the borders of the cloth and there was also an ocean like pattern hidden in the green color. In the middle of it all, were multiple symbols for what I assumed to be the show's logo.

"These tubed bandannas, or "fluffs" as we like to call them, will serve as an identifier for which team each camper is on. You'll need to wear these at all times during the competition; and if you damage yours, it's okay. Just ask for a replacement and everything will be 'ay ok'."

Everyone then decided on where they should put their new fluffs. Beth decided to incorporate hers into her ponytail scrunchee, Cody and Noah put theirs around their wrists, Owen put his around his neck, Leshawna and Justin turned theirs into an armband in the shape of infinity, Trent put his around his forehead, Lindsey placed hers around her uh… chest I suppose, Gwen placed hers around her ankle, Katie was trying to copy Sadie, and Heather placed hers over her forearm and thumb. I chose to place mine in a way that showed the logo on my forehead and some of the hair that connected to that general area.

Eliza POV

There were so many ways to wear this thing, Courtney and Bridgette put theirs on their wrists, Harold and Duncan put theirs around their necks, D.J. and Eva put theirs around their elbows in some kind of sling, Sadie was copying Katie and put hers around her ankle, Ezekiel put his around his hat, Tyler put his around his headband, and Geoff and Izzy had theirs around their foreheads. I put mine in a hair braid and slung it over my shoulder. Now we all just needed to know where we were supposed to put our bags. Chris motioned for us to follow him and we started walking to a tiny shed which had the sign "Confession Can" on it. EW.

"Alright campers, you and your team will be on camera in all public areas during this competition. You will also be able to share your innermost thoughts on with video diaries anytime you want. Let the audience at home know what you're really thinking or just get something off of your chest."

Some of us made a few statements in the confessional and set in motion what we were thinking, including myself.

" **I'm not sure what to make of everything right now. I'm working on it just give me a few more days**."

Jesse POV

" **It feels kinda surreal to be on a show like this. Uh, hello there. I'm Jesse. Okay, the next few scenes of me doing this will be better, just bear with me, okay."**

"Alright, any questions? Cool. Let's find your cabins."

We start walking around for about a mile or so into the forest and we see two cabins just a calming walk away from each other.

"Gophers, you're in the east cabin; bass, you're in the west. Take some time to settle in and get comfortable."

We opened the doors to each side of our teams' cabin, and it looked like everyone was supposed to each share a room. So much for personal space.

"Bunk beds? Isn't this a little… summer camp?

"That's the idea genius."

We started to make ourselves comfortable and introducing ourselves a little more when we heard Cody screaming as we found him eating the dirt outside.

 _Figures. Some people just can't take a hint._

"That's what happens when you Show up in a place where you aren't needed."

"Where are the outlets? I need to plug in my straightening iron."

"There are some in the communal bathrooms just across the way."

"Communal bathrooms? But I'm not catholic."

"Not communion, communal."

"Let's see… how do I say this… communal washrooms are used when there are a greater amount of people who need to use their facilities at the same time."

"…Sorry, but you lost me after 'greater amount'."

"It means we shower together. Idiot."

That was the start of Lindsey being nervous and trying to push Chris into having a private bathroom. Meanwhile, I just decided to get my stuff into my new place and pick out a bed. That was when Owen started a string of sentences that made the rest of us uncomfortable.

"I'm glad we're in our own cabin with just guys; know what I mean? I mean, NO! I didn't mean it like that. I love chicks. Ha-ha. I just don't wanna sleep near them. Gah! I mean-

"I think you should probably stop talking about that now. Otherwise; the hole you'll have to climb out of will just be that much bigger."

"Yeah, okay. I didn't mean to weird everyone out it's just; I get kinda nervous around girls, and we all know I'm no catch, so I don't wanna weird them out because of who I am."

Owen, buddy, you have nothing to worry about. I think when you get the chance to make a good impression on a girl; that you'll be anything but nervous. You just need to be calm and collected and just be you."

"Alright, thanks for the pep talk, dude."

"Anytime."

Eliza POV

I just finished listening to all of the emotional speech between Owen and Jesse and saw that some of these people are bonding together already. Seeing as that could be part of the game, I really need to pick up the pace or I'm going home sooner than I thought. As we were all getting ourselves into our cabins, Geoff asked a question that raised a little concern for everyone.

"Excuse me, Chris! Is there a chaperone of any kind in this facility?"

"You're all 21 years old. As old as a counselor at any regular summer camp, so other than myself, you'll be unsupervised. You've got the rest of the day to unpack and get to know each other. Breakfast will be served tomorrow at 6 A.M. See you all then, and good luck everyone!"

"Nice!"

As if on cue, a giant ear-piercing shriek rattled everyone in the camp and everyone ran to the source to see who it was. It was Lindsey in the girls' area of the gopher cabin, and she seemed to be terrified of something that she had seen.

"Oh, man that white girl can scream."

"What's going on? What's with all the screaming?"

"I just felt something on my foot! What is it? Kill it! Kill it!"

We found out the cause of her freak out pretty fast as a cockroach scampered its' way over to us. Once we all saw it D.J. immediately screamed like a little girl and jumped onto and broke the closest bed he could find, which was apparently Gwen's. At that point everyone was either trying to squish the bug or jumping onto the beds. I was trying to help squish the bug while trying to show that I'm not one of the girly girls; but it was all over when Duncan showed up with an axe and showed no mercy to the little guy. I thought I heard it cry for help before it got destroyed.

"Well that's one way to kill a cockroach."

"Awesome."

"If you ever see one of those again, just let me know, 'kay? Because, you know, I can do that too."

I could be wrong, but I thought Tyler was trying to make himself seem interesting to Lindsey, and strangely enough, it was working. Lindsey seemed completely captivated by what she had heard and was giggling to herself. I think our first hookup just happened.

"Pfft, they always go for the jocks."

" **Duncan's got a point. He's just talking tough so that he can seem cool and therefore pick up a girl who could like him. By the way, wasn't he on one of the beds too?"**

Jesse POV

The rest of the night was spent with all of our teams outside. We all introduced ourselves, told each other where we were from and what we did, and just got to know everyone's background a little bit. When it started to get late, we all went into the cabins and started talking about who we found interesting and who we could potentially fall for and stupid stuff like that. I guess we were saving the game talk for when we actually needed to do so, and away from prying eyes and ears. We all went to bed and started getting ready for the events that would happen tomorrow.

 **Day 2**

The next morning, we all got up and came to the lodge for breakfast. What we didn't know was that the head chef was someone who acted like he was in the military. The food looked like it was made for military use too. I've never had a sloppy joe for breakfast, but I can't very well argue with a guy like this

"Listen up! I serve it three times a day, and you will eat it three times a day. Grab your tray, get your food, and sit your butts down NOW!"

 _Sure am glad I'm not playing against this guy. He looks like he could take us all down with his fists alone._

"Excuse me, will we be getting all the major food groups?"

"Yeah, cause I get hypoglycemic real bad if I don't get enough sugar."

"You'll get a whole lot of shut the heck up!"

Eliza POV

"I think this guy could use some anti-stress pills."

"Haha, seriously, have a cow."

"What was that?! Come closer, fat boy. I didn't hear you. You too country girl! Now, what was it you two just said?"

From what I could tell, he looked like if we either lied to him or told the truth, he would still give us a lotta crap later on. For the time being, we had to play nice or we were gonna get him even angrier.

"Uh, I didn't really say anything important."

"Yeah, we're just witless maggots who only know how to follow orders. We wouldn't say anything to upset our superior."

"I'm sure you didn't. You, scrawny kid. Give me your plate."

As we were walking away, I couldn't help but notice that when the chef put another helping of 'joe' on Noah's plate; it went back onto the scooper. What kind of stuff is he feeding us? Someone needs to check this place; I think there's a few health and safety violations this guy missed.

Jesse POV

As we were moving along the line some of us were trying to make small talk with the others. Some were successful, but others like Lashawna didn't have as much luck when Eva never even gave her a response to her. Leshawna thought it could have been some kind of challenge, but she didn't get the chance as the head chef called her for her breakfast. When Lindsey, Gwen and I got to the serving station we had another of what I like to call a 'Lindsey moment'.

"Excuse me, my nutritionist says I shouldn't eat any white sugar, white flour, or like, dairy."

"What?"

"I know, right? I'm trying to lose weight, but I don't have the guts to try bulimia, so I'm just limiting my food options a little more."

 _You know that what you've just described is in practically every food except for meat. I'm starting to think that this show is really not for you, honey._

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem."

"Cool."

I thought that it was best to not say anything until it really mattered, so I kept my mouth shut and just moved along. I still wonder what that squishing noise was coming from Gwen's plate, though. When she came to our teams table she was covered in 'joe'.

"What happened to you?"

"Oh, nothing, the chef just killed my breakfast."

" **Again, WHAT?!"**

Eliza POV

We all ate our breakfast in almost silence as some of us were joking around and others were trying to play some kinda angle in the game. Before we knew it, Chris came back to see us and probably give us some more game info. The scene that played out after that was a little scary.

"Welcome to the main lodge."

"Yo, my man, can we order a pizza."

And in a violent retaliation, the chef just throws a meat cleaver near Geoff's head to get the message across that he wasn't messing around and that he really wasn't in the mood for any jokes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! It's cool, G! Brown slop is cool haha, right guys?"

We were all really impressed at the fact that he could do that, but also freaked out that he could do that to us. We were all trying to keep calm as we were agreeing with Geoff, so that he hopefully wouldn't have to die today.

"Get your swim gear ready everyone, because your first challenge begins in one hour."

We all decided to wrap up the pleasantries at that moment and start getting ready for the challenge. Most of us were changing in the cabins while others, like Leo, were changing alone in the stalls. Aw, he's shy. That's so cute. As we were making our way to the top of the eastern cliff, Sadie asked me what kind of challenge that we were going to do.

"What'll you think they'll make us do?"

"Well, we're all new to this kind of thing, so I don't think it'll be anything to hard."

"Yeah, I mean, it's our first challenge. How hard can it be?"

As D.J. finished saying that, we got our answer when we got to the top of the cliff. We didn't see anything that showed what we were supposed to do.

"Uh, guys…, you may not wanna see this."

As Jesse had said that, we saw two buoyed areas in the water and we knew that this first challenge just got a whole lot worse than what any of us could have imagined.

"Oh…... that bad."

 **I HOPE YOU ALL LIKED IT. THERE WERE A FEW MOMENTS WHERE I GOT A LITTLE SIDE TRACKED, BUT I DO PLAN TO MAKE A LITTLE IMPROVEMENT TO MY WRITING SPEED. LIKE I SAID, THE ONLY THINGS I OWN ARE THE IDEAS OF JESSE AND ELIZA. NOTHING ELSE! I AM ALSO IN THE WORKS OF A 'BLEACH' FANFIC, BUT I'LL ALSO TRY TO WORK ON THIS TOO. PLEASE STAY TUNED AND SEE WHAT ROLES ELIZA AND LEO PLAY IN THIS GAME. TILL THEN, PLEASE BE PATIENT AND I'LL SEE YOU ALL LATER.**


	2. Chapter 2: Leap of Faith

**AGAIN, I OWN NOTHING! I HAVE RECEIVED A COMPLAINT FROM A READER AND I WILL BE WRITING IN IN THE THIRD PERSON FROM NOW ON. ALSO, THE FORMAT OF HOW THIS STORY IS WRITTEN WILL ALSO SERVE AS THE BASE FOR THE REST OF THIS STORY. ENJOY!**

 **ALSO, NEW DIALOUGE:**

"SOMETHING." (Speaking loudly)

 **VOTING DIALOUGE:**

('What the person wrote on their voting paper'): " **This is why I'm voting against you at elimination."**

Chapter 2: Leap of Faith

As the competitors were gathered at the top of the cliff, some were contemplating what was going through the hosts' mind at the moment. It seemed as though he was actually trying to get everyone to perform what appeared to be a suicidal fall into the waters below. Some were beginning to show signs of panic and others were trying to calm themselves down. Most of the cast seemed to know exactly what they were going to be doing, with an obliviously blonde exception, and waited for the rules of what their first challenge entailed.

"Okay, today's challenge is three-fold. Your first task is to jump off of this 1000 foot high cliff into the lake."

"Um, I thought we would be doing some sort of advanced macro polo, not a daredevil Olympic dive."

"It's Okay, Eliza. It's not that bad if we think about it differently. It's like a big diving board at the neighborhood pool."

"You sure about that, Bridgette?"

"Of course! This'll be a piece of cake."

"If you look down, you will see two target areas. The wider area represents the part of the lake that we have stocked with psychotic- ha-ha-ha- man-eating sharks."

"Sharks?! You really are trying to kill us!"

"Jesse, dude, calm down. We made sure that most people of your age can survive and perform effectively in this challenge. Plus, we also have a sort of 'safety net'. Inside of this area is a safe zone. That's your main target area, which we're pretty sure is shark free.

"Excuse~ me?"

"Uh Chris, can we expect some kind of reward for doing something like this?"

"Yes, Eliza. Yes, you can. For each member of your team that jumps and actually 'survives', there will be a crate of supplies waiting below. Inside of each crate are supplies you'll need for the second part of the challenge. Building a hot tub."

The cast was a little skeptical about the tasks that were to be performed. Some campers were thinking that they could just then dive into the lake from a safe distance and then receive the hot tub as the reward for the winning team. The cast understood that there would be some actions in this sort of game that would be very difficult, but this seemed a little extreme.

"The team with the best one assembled with as many parts as they can get will have a wicked hot tub party tonight. And before I forget, there's another matter I should get to."

Chris turned around to a nearby tree that had something covered up with a checkered cloth that was covering a stool and some other object. When he removed the cloth, there was a small statuette that looked like a small totem pole comprised of a falcon with spread wings on top, a bear head, a monkey and appropriately, a shark as the base.

"The team who wins the challenge will receive the coveted invincibility idol. As long as you have invincibility, you are safe in this game. Without it, hah, you could be in trouble. The losers will be sending someone home tomorrow night. We'll determine who goes first with a coin toss. Whichever side the coin lands on will determine which team goes first."

As he said this, Chris took out a disk the size of a Frisbee and showed that it had two sides that were colored and stamped with the team logos. Everyone was hoping that they didn't have to go first, but all they could really do was watch as the coin was flipped into the air and onto the ground. When the cast gathered around the coin, some were groaning enthusiastically and others were sighing in relief as the red fish was shown face up on the ground.

"Killer Bass, you're up first."

When the call was made, the team wearing the red fluffs made their way to the edge of the cliff and it was then that their nerves went chaotic again. Even though there were probably counter-measures in place in case something unexpected happened, everyone was still nervous about actually jumping that far down. It wasn't until Bridgette brought it up that everyone was trying to make themselves go last in the jumping order.

"Oh, wow. So... who wants to go first?"

Nobody was in any kind of rush to jump, which proved that everyone was skeptical about what the producers were thinking. No one on the opposing team wanted to switch the order either, until for some strange reason, Owen started chuckling again.

"Hey, don't sweat it guys. I heard that these shows always make the interns do the stunt first to make sure it's survivable."

Hearing that from Owen made everyone feel a little bit better, but everyone was still wary of what would happen if they missed the safe area. Still, somebody needed to make sure that this was actually doable for the cast. After a little extra thought, Eva and Duncan started to get people going.

"So… Who's up?"

"Ladies first."

At this point the rest of the bass team was looking at Bridgette. She seemed to get the message and saw that she was the person who was the closest to the edge of the cliff.

"Fine. I'll go. It's no big deal; just an insane cliff dive into a circle of angry sharks."

After those words, Bridgette dived into the waters below. Everyone was scared and wondered if she was okay, and everyone looked down in the water and saw some ripples inside of the safe zone. After a few seconds, Bridgette emerged from the lake water and waved back.

"It's okay guys, if we all just do it like that, we'll all be okay! I think!"

Everyone seemed a little more confident when they saw her unharmed in the water. After an old-looking fishing boat came and got her out, everyone turned and saw that Tyler had a lot of energy to spare. That was how they knew who was going next.

"She did it. Yeah! Yeah! I'm next."

Tyler then went and jumped into the water with no problems at first. But then everyone heard a giant clang sound and saw that Tyler had landed on one of the steel buoys surrounding the safe zone. Everyone was giving low 'ooh' and 'ah' and 'ow' sounds and hoped that they didn't have that kind of bad luck either. At that point, Jesse started to see how painful this summer was going to be.

"That's gonna hurt tomorrow."

After making sure that Tyler was unhurt, Geoff, Eva and Duncan were the next three to jump. They either whooped, gave a warning, or just kept their mouths shut and focused on landing in the safe zone. The next camper in line to jump was D.J., but it seemed that he wouldn't budge. After a few minutes, Eliza and Chris went over to check up on him.

"Uh, D.J.? Are you feeling alright?"

"Uh-uh. No way, man. I'm not jumping."

"You okay, dude? Scared of heights?"

"Yeah, ever since I was a kid."

"You know, you don't have to jump if you really don't want to. We understand."

"Thanks, Eliza. I'm sorry guys, I just don't have the right guts."

Eliza was about finished with her talk with D.J. and the rest of the team did understand, however some of them didn't seem very happy. Chris seemed to sympathize as well, but it also looked like he was carrying a hat that resembled a chicken.

"It's okay, big guy. Unfortunately, that also makes you a chicken, so you'll have to wear this chicken hat until the end of tomorrow."

"Aw man, for real?"

After that, Chris started making some clucking noises, which some laughed at and some found unnecessary. It seemed that punishments were also going to play a role in this game.

"That means the chicken path down is that-a-way. Next!"

After D.J. started walking down a path down to the beach, Ezekiel was the next to jump. He did so without hesitation and seemed to have fun, but hit a rock on the side of the cliff and spun like a top into the safe zone. After he gave a thumbs-up back to his team, Eliza was the next to jump. She took a deep breath and jumped while screaming and saying 'Oh my God' multiple times. When she splashed into the water, she felt the impact of the splash and tried to open her eyes. When she did, she realized she was looking down at the lake-floor and saw something interesting.

" **So I'm in the water and I realize I'm still alive, which is wonderful, but then I open my eyes and see two little wooden chests at the bottom of the lake. A green one and a red one. I didn't have enough time to do anything else because I was running out of breath. I dunno if that chest was really there or if it was because of the water in my eyes, but if I have to jump again and it's still there, I'm grabbing it." – Eliza**

After realizing she was running out of breath, Eliza came back up and pumped her fist into the air giving smile back to her team.

The next diver was Harold, and his jump seemed harmless until he hit the water. When he landed, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, but nobody knew the reason. When he got into the boat, it became obvious how he was hurt as Harold was in a fetal position and refused to stand up when Bridgette offered her hand. Some even thought that the sharks were flinching. Back on the cliff, some of the men were grateful that that wasn't them, one obvious man being Chris.

"Oh, hate to see that happen."

After everyone made sure that Harold was alright, the order continued. The next person to dive was Courtney, but it seemed that she had other ideas.

"Excuse me, Chris. I have a medical condition."

"What condition?"

"A condition that prevents me from jumping off cliffs."

"You can chicken out if you want, but it might end up costing your team the win. And then they'll hate you."

"It's a calculated risk. I've seen the other team, and I don't think nine of them will jump."

Courtney seemed very confident that the Gophers wouldn't be able to match up against them, but that would remain to be seen. For the moment, she was given a chicken hat and the diving order continued. What followed after that was a little annoying.

"Alright, here is your chicken hat. So let's tally up the results. Hold on…. That's eight jumpers and two chickens. Sadie, you're up next."

"I am not jumping without Katie."

"We have to be on the same team, Chris. Please!"

The two 'besties' then continued their childish campaign for what seemed like ten minutes, until Izzy offered a solution.

"I'll switch places with her."

"Alright, Fine! You're both on the Killer Bass now. Izzy, you're on the Screaming Gophers."

"Yes!"

As the girls cheered for their personal victory, they seemed happier than they had been in the past day.

"That means you're up, girls!

"We're coming Killer Bass!"

As Izzy walked over to the other team, Katie and Sadie were both filled with newfound enthusiasm as they ran hand in hand and jumped off of the side of the cliff while screaming with glee and both girls landing in the safe zone. When the entire Bass team was on the beach, Chris announced the results.

"Okay, that's ten jumpers and two chickens. Screaming Gophers, if you can beat that, we'll throw in an advantage for the second part of your challenge. If you have less divers, then the Bass gets it." As soon as Chris finished saying that, a large item was carted out covering what everyone assumed was the advantage.

"Nice! Okay guys, who's up first?"

As soon as Trent asked that question, the green fluff wearing team immediately went silent. They saw the results of the other team and some were skeptical about whether or not they could do better. After a minute or two, Heather decided to break the silence, but not in the way the team expected. And when Beth tried to figure out her reasoning, things got even tenser.

"I'm sorry, there's no way I'm doing this."

"Why not?"

"Hello, national T.V. I'll get my hair wet."

When that came out of Heather's' mouth, some of the team couldn't even believe their ears. As everyone else was unsure of what to say, Gwen decided to voice what she believed was the consensus of the groups' thoughts.

"You're kidding right?"

"If she's not doing it, I'm not doing it."

After Lindsey also said that she wouldn't attempt the challenge, Lashawna took charge and decided to convince Heather to be a team player. Although, their discussion soon turned into a battle of words.

"Oh, you're doing it."

"Says who?"

"Says me. I'm not losing this challenge because you got your hair 'did', you spoiled little daddy's girl!"

"Back off, ghetto glamour, too tight pants wearing, rap star wannabe!"

"Mall-shopping, ponytail wearing, teen girl magazine reading, peaking in high school prom queen!"

The two girls seemed to be silent, but Heather still had one more jab to throw.

"Well at least I'm popular."

That last comment seemed to be personal, and at that point, the other Gophers knew to stay away if they valued their lives. This was easy for Justin since he was too distracted with his own reflection in a mirror to pay any attention. After a moment, Lashawna decided that she'd had enough.

"You're jumping!"

"Make me."

After the girls gave their opinions on the matter, Lashawna decided to pick up Heather, carry her to the edge of the cliff, and threw, LITERALLY THREW her into the water below. Everyone wondered if Heather was still alive, but their thoughts were interrupted when she yelled something back up to the top of the cliff.

"LESHAWNA! YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

"HEY, I THREW YOU INTO THE SAFE ZONE, DIDN'T I? Now I just hope I can hit it too."

Lashawna decided to take her turn next and also landed in the safe zone while simultaneously getting Heather wet all over again. The next person to dive was Lindsey, and she was still a little apprehensive despite what just transpired.

"I thought this was going to be a talent contest."

"Ha-ha, yeah, ha-ha, no."

Lindsey then proceeded to jump and scream her way into the safe zone. The next divers were Gwen and Cody, and they seemed to be in the same mental state, but were still able to land safely in the water. Izzy was next, but instead of screaming she seemed exited as she was heard laughing down the cliff. After her was Justin, and everyone panicked as he was the first player to miss the safe zone. Everyone was shouting at him to swim as fast as he could, but as the sharks closed in, something very strange happened. When the sharks got a good look at him, the stopped and slowed their swimming long enough for Justin to get his feet on one of their heads and ride the shark to shore.

"Hey, Jesse! Clock's ticking, dude."

"Huh? Oh, right. (Exhale) This is crazy. This is crazy."

Everyone was snapped out of their confusion due to Chris' comment and Jesse was the next to jump. After taking a moment to himself and walking backwards a few feet, he gave a running start and cannon-balled into the safe zone, getting some of his teammates wet and earning some cheers from everyone. He didn't come up for a while and wondered if he was alright, but he soon resurfaced and waved back with both hands. Concerned with why Jesse didn't resurface right away, Cody tried to gauge an answer.

"Dude, are you okay? We almost thought you started drowning."

"No, I'm fine. I was trying to see if I could reach the bottom."

" **I kinda told the truth when I said that. I did try to reach the bottom and expected nothing but sand, but I felt some wood at the bottom… and a little rope. But the funny thing is, the wooden part sort of felt like a container of some kind. I didn't get a good look at it because I always close my eyes whenever I hit the water, but I'm kinda interested in it now." – Jesse**

Beth was next in line, but she seemed to get nervous when she saw the bottom and started breathing a little heavier.

"I… I can't do it. I'm too scared. I'M SORRY!"

A few Gophers were taunting her with chicken noises while two of the other girls, Heather and Lindsey, had some more precise words.

"That is, like, so lame… right?"

"Fully lame."

Beth accepted her chicken hat and took the path to the beach. The next divers were Trent and Noah.

"You ready for a 'leap of faith'?"

"Heck yeah. Let's do this."

After Trent showed his enthusiasm for the challenge, he jumped and landed in the safe zone with no problems, as did Noah. The last diver on the team was Owen, and he seemed a little on edge.

"Okay campers, there's only one person left. You need this one for the win. No pressure, dude. Okay, there's pressure!"

The last comment from Chris seemed to make Owens' face twitch and his nerves seemed even more 'out of control'. The rest of his team was trying to cheer him on and give him courage, except for Heather, who was only trying to get him to move along with the program. Thinking it would help, Owen also put on some little kid water wings on his arms and took a deep breath.

" **I was pretty darn nervous. See, the thing is, I'm not that strong a swimmer." – Owen**

" **I'm looking at this guy and thinking 'There's no way he's gonna make it." – Geoff**

" **I actually thought 'If he jumps this… he's gonna die'." – Gwen**

"Take a good run at it, buddy. You can do this!"

After Chris gave him a few words of encouragement, Owen took a few steps backwards and contemplated about how he could potentially die from this challenge. There were mixed reactions among the rest of the campers; from the Gopher team giving looks of hope to the Bass team showing secretly hoping he would back out. A few moments passed, and then Owen clenched his fists…took a deep breath…ran to the edge of the cliff while give a 'warrior yell'…and jumped. During his fall, Owen belted an 'Oh, Crap' and screamed his way into the water, resulting in a giant splash. Everyone was drenched all over again, and after a few moments, Owen came back up in the safe zone.

"Yes! Yeah! Oh yeah, who's the man?"

As everyone saw that Owen was okay, the Gophers cheered for their first victory and the Bass groaned softly and others muttered some 'dangs' and other words of self-disappointment.

"THE WINNERS: THE SCREAMING GOPHERS!

Jesse and Trent ran up to Owen and went to help bring him ashore, but he seemed a little worried as he was turning and looking for something that he probably lost in the water.

"Heck of a splash, buddy. Good job!

"Yeah, that was awesome, dude… what's wrong?"

"Did you get a case of 'belly flop'?

"No…it's not that…I uhhh…think I lost my bathing suit."

That was a cue for everyone to start doling out how weird, embarrassing, awkward, and every other word they could think of to describe the current situation. After a couple of minutes of searching, Eliza had finally found Owens' swim trunks and threw them over to him. After he deemed himself decent, Owen swam to shore and everyone waited for their next instructions on the challenge. Chris then walked down to the shore and

"Alright campers, as I said before, the number of divers on each team decided the number of crates you earned. Screaming Gophers, you can take eleven, and Killer Bass, you can take ten. The contents of each crate is the same, the only difference is the number of parts each team has to assemble. Gophers, as the winners of the first part of the challenge, you have earned an advantage in part two."

Chris then removed the giant tarp-like cover to reveal five wooden carts. When everyone saw the carts, the Gophers cheered at their advantage and the Bass moaned and groaned at their missed prize.

"These carts will help you with getting your heavy crates back to camp. Bass, ha-ha, I suggest you guys start up your carrying muscles, because these crates weigh a TON. Good luck everyone, and I'll see you later when you've completed your hot tubs."

The teams then went to work on transporting their cargo. The Gophers loaded the crates onto the carts and designated who would pull the carts while the Bass tried to lift the crates or push them. While some of the crates seemed light, others seemed difficult to carry. After the Gophers got their carts loaded, the team started pulling with two members on a cart while Heather and Gwen walked along the shoreline so that nothing fell off. At some point Beth started to sing the 'bottles of pop' song and everyone else got caught along in it to pass the time.

At the same time, the Bass was starting to have problems with transporting their crates. Eva didn't have a problem with lifting hers, but everyone else was either straining from the heavy lifting or tried to push so hard that the crates tipped over. Duncan even tried a method of kicking one of the crates. Along the way, Courtney had a couple of injuries. The first seemed superficial as she only had a splinter, which made Eva get on her case.

"Shut up and pick up your crate, chicken!"

"Hey, I'm the only one with C.I.T camping experience here. You need me."

Everyone gave Courtney a look and wasn't sure if what she said was entirely truthful, considering she was wearing a chicken hat. Later on, Tyler said that he need to use the restroom, but had to make due, seeing that they were in the wilderness. Katie and Sadie also contemplated their current condition and also decided to use the restroom, but in a separate area away from Tyler. The other injury Courtney was given was when she swatted a bug, but still feel a little pain. Trying to help her, Eliza tried to examine her injury.

"Ow!"

"What's wrong?"

"I think something just bit me."

"Here, let me see… I don't see anything wrong with it right now."

"Ok, but if it gets any worse, then can you help me find some disinfectant?"

"Uhh…yeah…sure."

" **Courtney seems like a nice person. I don't know why she didn't try to jump off the cliff, though. I know that the rest of the team probably wants to vote her out, but I really want to keep her around." – Eliza**

Meanwhile, the Gophers continued their song until the cabins were finally in sight. Beth was the first who saw the path that lead to the teams' abode and told everyone that they were almost there.

"Hey guys, there's the campgrounds."

Owen and Cody saw that the walk seemed pretty easy. Everyone was pleasantly surprised that they worked together so well and continued singing until they reached 28 bottles. Soon the feeling wore off and the team started getting to work on the crates. At that moment, everyone saw some knotted ropes that were crisscrossing through the planks. Gwen was the first one to notice this and found the solution rather easily.

"I think we need to untie these knots if we want to open the crates."

"Alright, we have 11 crates and twelve members on our team, so everyone should take a crate and start untying the knots."

Shortly after Jesse had come up with a plan, everyone went to work. Izzy, however, was called over to the camera crew and traded in her original red fluff for a green one.

Not everyone was sure of what Izzy was thinking, but it was done and over with and the teams needed to work together as they were. After Izzy was finished placing her new fluff around her forehead, she decided to help Beth with the crate she was working on. Izzy seemed nice, but Heather couldn't help but get a little skeptical.

" **Izzy seemed really quick to switch teams when she had the opportunity. I don't know what's going on in that crazy girls' head, but I'm definitely keeping an eye on her." – Heather**

" **I thought that since Katie and Sadie were really close, that they should have been on the same team from the start. And I didn't see anyone else would want to switch teams for them, so I just volunteered so that nobody else would have to. That's not hard to understand… right?" – Izzy**

After all of the knots were untied, the team removed the lids of the crates and started to uncover what they would be working with for the second part of the challenge. The tools consisted of wooden planks, construction tools, a pool liner, some wooden braces, and what appeared to be a disassembled motor. As this was happening, Heather walked up to Leshawna, presumably to start another fight, but she decided to apologize instead.

"I just wanted to say that I didn't mean that about you being a 'ghetto rap star wannabe', and that I love your earrings. They're so pretty."

"Straight up? Well, I'm sorry about pushing you over the cliff and all."

"No worries. I needed a push. Truce?"

"Yeah, yeah, you got it."

As the rivals bumped fists as a sign of friendship, Lindsey called Heather over to one of the crates as she was having trouble reaching her supplies. While they were working, Lindsey decided to ask her a question.

"Did you mean all that stuff that you said to 'Lafonda' back there?"

"'Leshawna'? Eh, no. She's going down. And P.S., those are the ugliest earrings I have seen in my life."

"Oh. So if you hate her, why are you being nice to her?"

"You ever seen one of these shows before. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"Oh… I'm your friend, right?"

"Oh yeah. For now."

Even though they had the interior of the box to cover them, they had noticed that Jesse was sitting a few feet away, appearing to study the blueprints of the hot tub. Heather wasn't sure if he had overheard their conversation, so she decided to figure out if he had.

"Hey there!"

"AH! Oh, hi Heather, you spooked me."

"Sorry about that. Looking at the blueprints?"

"Yeah, I'm just trying to see if we're missing anything. We did leave one of the crates behind. Why, did you notice something?"

"No no, I just think that you're doing a good job with helping us stay organized."

"Uh… sure. Thanks. Tell me if we're missing something okay?"

"Sure, I can keep an eye out."

"Alright, thanks!"

As Heather walked away, she mouthed the word 'stupid' to the camera in front of her before Jesse took a small look back at her from the corner of his eye and stuck his tongue out as he went back to the blueprints.

As this was happening, Katie traded in her green fluff for a red one and the Killer Bass resumed their trek along the beach's sand and continued to push, pull, kick, roll, or in Eva's case; carry their crates back to their cabin. While After a few more minutes of this process, more problems continued to present themselves, specifically with Katie and Sadie saying they were itching and Courtney's eye beginning to swell due to her earlier bug bite. After some more pushing, Katie and Sadie started to complain about their itchiness on their butts.

"Ooh, it's really itching now."

"Mine feels like its burning."

"Okay, that's it! I have to scratch!"

Everyone else saw how hard their current task was and was starting to show varied stated of fatigue; from Eva seeming irritated to Eliza resting her head on the top of the crates wondering if they even stood a chance anymore. Seeming concerned and wanting to reduce the amount of tension that could explode at any moment, Bridgette went over to Katie, Sadie, Courtney, and Eliza and attempted to remedy their current situation.

"You guys seem to be having a harder time than the rest of us. Are you alright?"

"Their butts are itchy."

Bridgette gasped in surprise to see how much Courtney's eye had swollen up and asked the same question.

"Oh, uh… sorry. Are you alright too?"

"Bug bite on the inside of her eye."

"Alright, well, these guys probably have an infirmary somewhere, so we can get that checked out later. As for you two, I think I have an idea about what happened."

Katie and Sadie then looked at each other and at Bridgette again with puzzled faces.

"Did you guys squat in the middle of the forest when you went to the bathroom?"

Both girls nodded their heads and Bridgette continued with their questioning.

"Where there any plants that you were squatting over?"

"There were these leaves that were oval-shaped and green and all over the place."

"Were they low to the ground?"

As Bridgette made a small circle with her hands and the girls nodded again, Courtney and Eliza brought their hands to their faces in what appeared to be frustration, which prompted Katie and then Sadie to ask what was happening.

"So do you think those plants did this?"

"What could some small plants do?"

"You guys squatted over poison ivy."

Katie and Sadie took a moment to register the information and then proceeded to scream and start scratching their backsides against the sand. This prompted some silent laughter and confused looks from the rest of the team as to what was happening. After a while, the itchy girls tried soothing their pain by using the lake water and the rest of the team decided to move on and wait for them to catch up. Eventually, the bass were able to reach the campgrounds expressed their fatigue with heavy sighs, breathing 'Finally!' or simply sitting down to recover their energy. When everyone managed to collect themselves, Trent and Leshawna went to see if the bass were alright.

"Hey, what's up guys?"

"Hey, uh… aren't y'all missing a couple of white girls?"

Some of the red bass team thought that it would be best if Katie and Sadie's condition wasn't made public to the green gophers, so Courtney thought of an acceptable excuse for their missing members.

"They're… getting a drink."

"Yeah… if they drink with their butts."

Some of the immature boys laughed while the girls thought that their situation was nothing to laugh about. Leshawna attempted to comment, but was distracted by the size that Courtney's infected eye had become and asked if there was something wrong.

"Ooh, what happened to your eye, girl."

"Nothing, just an allergy."

"I think it's getting worse."

After Ezekiel expressed his opinion on Courtney's condition, she told him to be quiet as she did not want the other team to know the true severity of her current state. The gophers had a gigantic lead over them that some were contemplating throwing the challenge and sending one of their members home. Seeing the looks on their faces, Geoff thought that he needed to rally everyone together, so he stood on one of the crates and gave a small pep talk.

"'kay, dudes, it's not too late. We can do this."

"How? We have less supplies than the other team, and they have a huge head start on us."

"I know, Eliza. I know that it looks bad, but can we really just roll over and let them have the W? I'd rather keep fighting and lose than just sit and not even try. Plus, even if we do lose, we can still hold our heads up high knowing that we did everything we could together. So? What do the rest of you think?"

The rest of the bass started to get a small feeling of confidence in themselves and started to feel like they could actually do it if they try hard. Shortly after, Courtney gave her opinion on what she thought needed to be done.

"Okay, look guys, we have a hot tub to complete and we need a project manager. Since I've actually been a CIT before, I'm electing myself. Any objections?"

"Where do we begin, Cyclops?"

With that rude comment from Duncan, Courtney entered leader mode and got everyone organized into different roles.

"Start opening the crates. Bridgette, Eliza, go find those itchy girls. We need all the help we can get."

From there, every player went to work, and it was apparent immediately that both teams had different ideas of completing this challenge. The gophers were all working together while showing results and teamwork, from communicating and passing tools to creating a pass-it-along system with water buckets to make filling the tub easier. The bass, however, had trouble with the assembly of the hot tub and the way the team was working together. Some of the members were arguing about who should use which tool, some of their members were getting hurt (mostly Harold), and the missing pieces that they gave up made it almost impossible to complete their project the way that the blueprints described. The red-fluff wearing team had to settle for a little pool that had no warm water or bubbles with a ring of duct tape keeping the blasted thing from leaking. When time ran out, everyone stepped back to see how each team did; the gophers proud of their stellar accomplishment and the bass happy that they had tried their best. Chris went to the gophers' tub first and made some small checks such as knocking on the wooden bases, assessing the water temperature, and looking at the teams' blueprints. He was silent the entire time and after he was finished, he gave his opinion.

"Solid craftsmanship, warm and bubbly water, and all available parts have been used. This is a pretty awesome hot tub."

When Chris gave the good review, everyone on the gopher team cheered softly as they had done an acceptable job with what they were given. When the bass' tub came under review, Chris could already seemed that they had turned their possible reward into a rush order. As soon as he knocked on the wooden walls he got sprayed with lukewarm water, the tape came apart, the planks fell over, and the water went all over the grass underneath. At that point, it was clear who had won.

"Well, I think we have a winner here… The Screaming Gophers win invincibility."

The green team cheered louder than the first time at the fact that they were all safe for another three days in the game. As the cheering started to die down, Chris walked over to the green gophers and handed them the invincibility idol as their prize.

"Congrats Gophers, you're safe from elimination tonight, and you get to rock this awesome hot tub for the rest of the summer as a bonus."

The gophers gave another round of cheers before Chris had to bring the bad news to the red bass.

"Killer Bass, what can I say? Probably doesn't feel good to be you right now. I'll see your sorry butts at elimination tomorrow night. You have until then to decide who's going home."

As the teams let the adrenaline and the news of the challenge's results sink in, everyone went back to their cabins and decided to rest from all the excitement of the day.

 **Day 3**

The day started early as everyone decided to make their way to the main lodge and settled into their breakfast. There were also some small sugary snacks that were available at the table adjacent to those of the teams. After breakfast, the gophers decided to have a small hot tub party to celebrate their first win as a team. Some decided to enjoy the bubbles, some danced, and the rest just decided to watch everyone else have fun. Gwen and Jesse were two of the silent party. It felt awkward to just sit there with nothing to talk about, so Jesse decided to break the ice between him and the moody girl.

"You're not gonna join in on the fun?"

"No. What about you? This seems like it'd be something guys like you would enjoy."

"Not really. Don't get me wrong, I wanna be in the 'it' crowd… but it's not easy for me to talk to new people. I don't know how to read people on a personal level. Besides, I'd probably just make myself sound weird anyway."

"Well, you're talking to me and you seem alright to be."

"… I guess so. Not sure why, but it's a little easier to talk to. …I'm Jesse."

"Gwen. And don't worry about other people… sooner or later… things will just click together."

"I hope so."

It seemed a little strange that a socially awkward redhead and a girl who looked bored all the time would be friends by choice in the real world. This game can do some strange things to people.

" **Yep, this camp pretty much still sucks. But, now that I'm here I guess I might as well actually try to win. – Gwen**

" **Gwen seems like a pretty cool person; I totally didn't expect that from her. With a better read of the team, I think I'm starting to find some common ground and make some friends. I guess I don't have to worry about much after all." - Jesse**

The mood at the bass table was somewhat tense since there was still the matter of voting someone out to ponder. Katie decided to get everyone talking by thinking about what they should do for that day; besides the upcoming vote, of course.

"So… uh… what do we do now?"

"We lost the challenge, so now we have to vote someone off the island, which also means that someone at this table will lose their chance at the million."

"Eliza's right. We have to figure out who we're gonna vote off. We may as well start talking about it so that nobody here gets their feelings hurt."

Not everyone at the table wanted to speak, but Duncan had no problems pointing fingers, or since he was sitting next to his targets, thumbs, which led to a confrontation between him and Courtney.

"Well I think it should be the princess or the 'brick-house' here."

"What!? Why?"

"Because unless I'm mistaken, you two are the only ones at the table wearing chicken hats; and if we ever have to lift a truck, I like our odds with the big guy."

"…Y-You guys need me! I'm the only one-"

"We know; who used to be a real CIT. So who would you pick?"

After Bridgette asked her who would be a candidate for elimination, she thought about people who she could get along with and be able to depend on in challenges. As she looked around the table, she saw that Tyler probably couldn't be trusted in the long haul, and pointed the finger straight at him. This was unfortunate for Lindsey, who just happened to be refilling the gophers snack stash and overheard their conversation.

"What about him?"

"NO!"

…I mean… no SALT! There's no salt on the table. Bummer…"

Everyone was a little stunned by how Lindsey reacted, but seeing as how they got that kind of reaction, they weren't really sure what to think about Courtney's decision. After everything calmed down, Eliza decided to get the ball rolling again.

"Do you want to explain why we would send him home?"

"Well… you all saw that gopher shout, right? Maybe we won't be able to trust him as much moving forward."

"Hey, hey! At least he jumped of the cliff, Chicken wing."

After Duncan made that rude comment, Courtney replied with a quick 'shut up' in a way that the rest of the team could see the tension between the two. Attempting to smooth the situation over, Geoff decided to break up the fight before it became physical.

"O.K., let's just chill out. This is getting WAY too heavy."

After it seemed like the two had calmed down a little, Duncan decided that he had enough of his 'team' for one day and left, to which Courtney objected.

"Ah, I've had enough prison food for one day. I gonna go have a nap.

"Y-You can't do that. We haven't decided who's going yet!"

"Well, I just don't get why we lost, eh? Each team has an even number of guys and girls, so it doesn't really matter why we lost?"

Everyone paused for a moment to register what Ezekiel had just said and tried to process what he meant. Some of the red team looked surprised, while others like Eva, Bridgette and Eliza seemed somewhat offended by what they just heard. Deciding to get their facts straight, the three girls decided to ask Ezekiel to clarify the meaning behind his words. Bridgette seemed angry, Eva smashed the table in rage and Eliza was just trying to be as calm and understanding as she could, given the circumstances.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, home-school. Enlighten us."

"Ezekiel, uh, just what did you mean when you said that?"

"Well, guys are much stronger and better at sports that girls are."

Everyone went completely silent after that statement. Their reactions were a mix of agape mouths, wide eyes, and an exasperated statement from Geoff.

"Ha-oh-oh-oh, snap. He did not just say that."

Everyone else was silent for a few minutes, giving Ezekiel the chance to try and defend himself from what he just said, but his words just continued to roll him further downhill.

"What? My dad told me to look out for the girls here, eh? And help them In case they can't keep up."

That sent Eva into an even deeper level of anger while attempting to strangle the redneck.

"Still think we need your help keeping up?"

To which the home-schooled redhead meekly replied, "Ugh… not really."

"Eva! Let him go! You're gonna hurt him!"

After Eliza brought her back to reality, Eva realized that she was still n T.V., she decided to be nice for the sake of her image and let her victim go. Then Geoff decided to try and make everyone forget their anger, again.

"O.K. guys, let's give him a break. I mean, at least he doesn't think that guys are smarter than girls."

"But… they are."

That last comment almost made Eva want to kill him again, but she also thought the whole meeting was getting on her nerves.

"Rrrgh, alight, I've had it! I'm not gonna be part of this meeting if it means I need to knock some teeth around, so I'm gonna go and decide who I want gone by myself!"

After she stormed out, everyone thought that the atmosphere was too tense to talk about the vote with the rest of the team. So everyone else went their separate ways and left the dining hall. After the scene that transpired, Courtney decided to gather all of the bass girls together and pitch a new idea.

"I'm sorry, but I can't forgive how Ezekiel just said that with a straight face. I feel insulted for myself and all of us here. So, if you'll all hear me out, I'd like us to align our votes together to vote him out."

"I'm all for that, but we that's only six of us and if the guys all band together to protect him, it'll be a tie. We need to bring in a guy for this to work."

As Bridgette had finished her thought, Eva volunteered to threaten them, which every other girl thought was a bad idea. So every girl decided to work on attempting to convince one guy to vote for Ezekiel. Bridgette talked to Geoff, Courtney bargained with Duncan, Katie and Sadie chatted with Harold and Tyler, and Eva decided to stay as far away from the remaining redhead, lest she lose control again. That left Eliza to convince D.J. She started a conversation with him while he was at the docks, cleaning his fluff in the lake water.

"Hey, there. Mind if I join you?"

"No, not at all, what's up?"

"The girls aren't exactly happy about what happened with Ezekiel. They really want him gone. But I was kinda wondering where your head was at."

"Well, I don't really agree with what he said either, but all the guys are probably gonna be focusing on how to win challenges, so based on performance, they're all gonna gun for Courtney. Unless they want me out."

"I don't think so. Courtney didn't jump because she wanted to take a risk; you didn't because it brought back bad memories, those are two completely different things. I don't think you're in any danger, I just wanted to see if you were voting for her too."

"I don't know… I want to be tight with everyone, but I know I can't be friends with everybody."

"I'm in the same boat. As long as I can still get along with people, I think I'm safe. But like I said, the girls really want Ezekiel gone. If they pull another guy over and you're on the wrong side of the vote, I can't guarantee they won't try to get rid of the rest of the guys."

"Seriously?"

"I'm just thinking right now, I'm not certain of anything, but if there's a majority and we're on the wrong side of it, chances are the ones in control will pick us off one by one, so we need all the people we can get to vote together so that we feel safe."

"I don't know, I'll have to think about it."

"Alright, but regardless of what you choose, I'll respect your decision."

"Right…Thanks, Eliza."

Time went on and everyone thought about what they thought was the right course of action. Later that day, the camera crew called the Killer Bass and told them to follow a path deep into the woods, but away from the cliff they had visited earlier. They followed the path into the deep north forest and as they walked a giant structure came into view. It looked like an abandoned dock on the lake about two feet off of the ground with small wooden huts that looked like teepees made by Native Americans. There were some things there that seemed to make this seem less like a camp activities and more like a sacred island ritual, such as a few lit mini-woks to illuminate the main path, some wooden masks, a giant totem pole, and a giant fire pit in the center of the area. The team walked up the steps from the sand to the structure, a few of them in awe of how much detail they put into making the set. There was a series of little wooden stools for everyone to place their things, but they didn't sit yet on account of the bizarre looking tiki torches behind their stools. The torches looked like a coiled spear down the shaft while the top had what appeared to be a wooden flask with a red stripe across the middle on top of a large wooden sphere that bore their team's bass symbol. Their thoughts were all interrupted when Chris gave a few more instructions.

"Behind your seats is a torch to represent you, go ahead and grab the one with your name on it and light it in the central fireplace. In real life, fire represents many things; beauty, danger, the human spirit. But in this game, the fire on your torches will represent your life. If it's still there, you're still in the game, and when it's gone, you are too."

Everyone did just that, while Geoff gave a gag of running his finger across his neck, and everyone took a seat after placing their torches behind them. After that, Chris started to ask everyone a few questions.

"So, an interesting first three days, huh? You're all playing a game for a million dollars, but right now you're all playing on a team with the people you're ultimately competing against. Harold, what do you make of your new team?"

"I believe that there are people who bring a great deal of positive qualities to the greater benefit of the team, which we can bond over and will also help us win challenges in the future."

"But you all lost the first challenge, which lead to all of you being here tonight. Bridgette, what does that say to you?"

"I think that we have a lot to work out in terms of communication; as well as making sure that everyone tries their hardest to win."

"Courtney, what Bridgette said was 'everyone tries their hardest to win'. That didn't seem to be the case when you refused to jump off the cliff."

"Well, at first I had thought that, based on how the other team was organized, that… there would be more people rejecting the offer to jump than we had. But I was wrong, and I COMPLETELY admit to that."

"Do you think that your poor judgement is what would send you home tonight?"

"I do think that would be the case, but I'm also hoping that there are also some weaker elements to the team that they could focus on except for voting someone out based on one mistake."

"Tyler, has there been any other names thrown out for elimination besides Courtney's?"

"Well, I know for a fact that Courtney said that I could go home tonight?"

"Why do you think she would throw your name out?"

"She said it was because I was least trusting on the team, but I don't really see what makes me so untrusting to her."

"Actually, uh, can I say something?"

"Yes Katie, what is it?"

"Well… when Courtney first suggested that Tyler could go, the blonde gopher girl, I think her name was Lindsey… she was all like 'NO!' like she really didn't want him to leave yet."

"Tyler, is this true?" Do you and Lindsey have some sort of friendship that the others don't know about?"

"Well… kinda. I mean, there aren't many times when both teams get to mingle together and, when I first talked to Lindsey, she seemed like a good kind of person. But I'm with my team now and my team is like a family, we have fun, do our work, and win and lose together."

"We're also as dysfunctional as a real family."

"Eliza, are you saying that there are some people on the team that you're not getting along with?"

"We were all getting along just fine until we were doing so horribly in the challenge, and then having to talk about who to vote off made everything worse, so I really don't know how friendly we are with each other."

"I know that I hate Ezekiel."

"That's a bit strong Eva, why would you say that you hate Ezekiel? Did he do something to you?"

"He offended us by calling us girls weak."

"Really. Ezekiel, why would you insult half of your team by calling them weak?"

"I didn't call them weak, I just said that guys are stronger, smarter, better at sports, and better at everything than girls, and I was just pointing out that I didn't understand how we lost when both sides have an equal number of boys and girls. I was only asking why we actually lost."

With another awkward silence filling the air, all Chris could say was: "Wow."

"Can I say something?"

"Sure Bridgette."

"Ezekiel… I'm sorry, can we just call you 'Zeke' from now on, because saying 'Ezekiel' all the time is starting to get old."

"… Yeah, okay."

"Thank you, now, Zeke, you need to understand that not everyone here has the same opinions that you have-

"More like nobody."

"-Shut up, Duncan! So you need to be careful about what you say, because what you said really wasn't cool and it hurt a lot of peoples' feelings. Not just that, but you also offended every female who's watching right now and you hurt their feelings too."

"I… aw, gee guys, I… I didn't know. I'm sorry, eh? I feel really bad about it now."

"Zeke, you know that it won't always take a simple apology right? They may have been angry enough to vote you out right now."

"Well… I know that sorry isn't always enough, but I hope that, if I stay, I'll show how much I regret what I said and try to help however I can."

"Duncan, what do you make of what everyone's said here tonight?"

"Well, I know that Zeke here has a lot to learn about the real world; but it also seems like the team has a lot of different directions that they could go with this vote."

"D.J., based on what Duncan said, it seems like it would come down to who everyone trusts, who could help people better in challenges, and who is causing unnecessary trouble. With all of these different directions to go, where do you plan to throw your vote tonight?"

"…I'm planning to vote… on what will make this team whole in challenges and in 'camp life'."

After everyone had spoken their mind on what they had been asked, Chris began to explain what would happen next and pointed behind him to a small wooden hut with a door on it.

"Alright then, let me explain how the voting is going to work. In that hut over there, is a little pile of papers, a pen, and an urn. One by one, you'll all take turns walking over to the hut and vote by writing the name of the person you want to vote out on a single paper, speak your peace to the camera within the two way mirror, fold it so that the name is hidden, place your vote in the urn, and return to your seat. To make the voting private, the walls in the hut are insulated, so nobody will be able to hear you unless you scream at the top of your lungs. With that said, it's time to begin the vote. Eliza, you're first."

As the first person to vote, Eliza stood up and walked over to the voting hut while making sure the door was closed behind her. She then walked up the makeshift table, took a slip of paper and wrote down a name and started to whisper something to the camera.

('Ezekiel'): **"This is a vote out of security for the both of us, so that you can be better prepared for life and so I can focus on the game."**

She then proceeded to fold the paper in half to cover the name she wrote and decided to kiss the paper before placing it in the urn.

Then Tyler went to vote.

('COURTNEY written in small letters'): **"You tried to get me out the first moment we talked about voting, so I thought I'd return the favor."**

Then Harold went to vote.

Then Katie went to vote.

Then Bridgette went to vote.

Then Sadie went to vote.

Then Courtney went to vote.

('Ezekiel with an unhappy face'): **"You have a lot of growing up to do before you can truly understand the world around you."**

Then Eva went to vote, even though it was obvious to everyone what she would write and say.

Then Ezekiel went to vote.

('COURTNEY'): **"Despite what I said, we really need to make the team stronger, and I think this is the best way to do it."**

Then Geoff went to vote.

Then Duncan went to vote.

('COURTNEY!'): **"Goodnight, sweet princess."**

Then D.J. went to vote, but he paused for a moment as to what he should write and say. After a moment he said his peace, placed his vote in the urn, and walked back to his seat.

"I'll be back with the votes."

After he said that, Chis walked off somewhere for longer than was needed to walk to the voting hut. Everyone was wondering about different things such as who everyone had voted for, if people voted the way they predicted, and above all everyone hoped that they were safe. After a while, Chis came back with the urn.

"You have all cast your votes and made your decision. The camper who has received the most votes must leave the elimination grounds immediately by walking down the path on your left."

Everyone looked to the left and saw a more of the makeshift dock that lead into the forest, but it seemed that the path that was darker the further you looked and that you could easily trip if you weren't careful. There was some light in the form of two small fire pits outside of the elimination area, but that could only show so much. That would be the path one of the twelve, and most of the campers would eventually have to walk as well.

"And now, the votes."

Everyone was anxious to see whose names would be shown, but some also felt somewhat comfortable knowing that the targets were obvious. All that remained was for one of them to go.

"The first vote is against… …Courtney…

…Courtney, two votes for Courtney…

… Zeke…

… Zeke…

… Zeke, three votes for Zeke, two votes for Courtney…

… Zeke…

… Zeke…

… Courtney…"

Both of the two who received votes started to feel nervous about whether or not they would actually stay. Courtney had one hand up to her mouth while Ezekiel pulled his hands together as if he were praying not to be sent home.

"…Courtney…

…Zeke, we're tied again with five votes each…

…

…Zeke, that's six votes for Zeke, five vote for Courtney, and one vote remaining."

Everyone was looking around in realization that the girls had made good on their plan. Courtney started to feel a little better but not by much, seeing as the girls didn't have the majority yet. They were all hoping that they had found someone who was willing to side with them while the men hoped the opposite. All everyone could do was wait for the last vote to be revealed and see what that person had decided. D.J., however, had his head in his hands as he saw that his vote hadn't come up yet, which deepened his fear of him being held responsible for the night's outcome. Chris had the last vote in his hand, paused for a moment, and looked at the name within. He waited for another moment as he saw everyone's eyes on him.

"…

…The first person voted out of Total Drama Island… is Zeke… you need to bring your torch over."

Ezekiel hung his head in shame for a moment and stood to gather his things. Courtney and the rest of the girls gave a huge sigh of relief while the guys were turning their heads trying to figure out sided with the enemy. All the while D.J. was still in his own hands, which silently gave Duncan a feeling about who the culprit was. Once Ezekiel had gathered had gathered his belongings, he grabbed his torch and quickly made his way to Chris, who had what looked like half of a coconut shell on a stick with a rooster on top of the coconut. Ezekiel saw a little hole in front of Chris where his torch could probably fit. He placed in in the hole and waited for instructions on what would happen next.

"Ezekiel, your game is over."

He then used placed the coconut shell over the flame on his torch and left it there for a few moments until he deemed the flame was extinguished.

"Time to head out."

Ezekiel then placed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and walked off into the dark. The remaining members of the Killer Bass looked on until they couldn't see him anymore. Each member of the team was happy that they survived their first vote, but the internal celebrations were short lived when Chris brought them back to their senses.

"Well then, you made this vote because you wanted to make your team whole, but only time can tell if you made the right choice. Grab your stuff and head back. I'll see you tomorrow."

With that, everyone grabbed their personal items, bags, and torches (since they all thought they would be important enough to take back to their cabin) and started making their way out through the entrance. One bass seemed eager to explain his decision while another wanted to kick something, or someone.

" **I didn't think that I had offended anybody that badly when I said guys were stronger than girls. I gave my opinion to why I thought we lost and it caused everyone to hate me somethin' fierce. I'm not gonna forget this, cause I know now that not everybody's raised the same way and I hope to still be friends with the bass when this is done." - Ezekiel**

 **PHEW! ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE. FYI: WE SHOULD ALL BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT WE SAY, LEST WE ACCIDENTALLY HURT SOMEONE'S FEELINGS. THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT WITH ME AS I WAS NON-ACTIVE FOR A WHILE. I'VE BEEN FOCUSING ON MY JOB AND OTHER THINGS.**

 **ALSO, I'M SORRY TO SAY THAT SINCE SCHOOL IS STARTING, THERE MAY BE ANOTHER UPDATE GAP SOON, EVEN THOUGH I WILL STILL ATTEMPT TO COMPLETE A CHAPTER BEFORE SUMMER IS OVER. BUT I'M STILL GOING TO ATTEMPT TO IMPROVE MY WRITING WHILE TELLING THE STORY MY WAY. WITH THAT SAID, I'LL SEE YOU LATER.**


	3. Chapter 3: Line in the Sand

**I OWN NOTHING RELATED TO TOTAL DRAMA EXCEPT JESSE AND ELIZA.**

Chapter 3: Line in the Sand

The Killer Bass walked back to their cabins from elimination, where they just voted out Ezekiel. The team thought it was dangerous to walk back with fire in their hands, so they doused their torches in a nearby river before reaching their cabin. The red-fluffed team thought it would be a hassle to take their large torches into the cabin, since they would take up a large amount of space and make walking around inside harder, so the team left them leaning against the outside wall. As everyone was about to go to bed, Duncan called to all the guys together to fill them all in on what he thought went wrong with the vote.

"Somebody flipped on the vote, and whoever did it needs to explain themselves."

Everyone looked around the room and saw D.J. looking down at the ground feeling guilty about not voting alongside his friends, but he still felt like it was the right thing to do. Duncan caught D.J. mid-thought and brought him back to explain himself.

"So, what happened there, D.J.? Care to explain?"

"… Yeah. I voted him out… and I did it because I didn't want to look like I agreed with what he said. Yeah, Courtney screwed up, but at least she tried to get our trust back. Zeke didn't even TRY to apologize until right before we voted… I just didn't want to look like I was taking his side in that argument."

All the boys were speechless at how calm D.J. was when he admitted to his misdeed and his explanation for voting the way he did. Maybe D.J. had a point. If they had voted to keep Zeke, the audience would probably think that they were agreeing with him and with his viewpoint about women. When they soaked in the information, Geoff decided to speak and make sure the group did not fight amongst each other (again).

"I get it dude. Really, I do. I don't agree with Zeke either, but I just thought that we guys had to stick together for now."

"Yeah, but if he kept saying stuff like that and not apologizing, he would have had to go sooner or later, so I guess I can understand why it happened now."

As Harold chimed in with that remark, the rest of the guys knew that they couldn't stay mad at D.J. forever. If Zeke had to go, he had to go, and everyone decided to accept the reasoning why they did it. As they boys were finishing up their conversation, Duncan gave a quiet 'Yeah, whatever' and decided that he'd gotten what he wanted. He was satisfied, but he was still mad; and D.J. wasn't out of his cross-hairs quite yet.

" **It turns out D.J. did have a reason for voting out Zeke. I can understand why he flipped. Heck, I probably would have done the same thing, but that doesn't mean I can just forget what happened. D.J.'s acting like a little lost lamb right now, and it falls to me to be his new sheep dog." – Duncan**

 **Day 4**

Everyone was still in bed and slept soundly after their ordeal of a first challenge. Later in the morning, the speaker in the center of the campgrounds sounded an eardrum-shredding sound and informed everyone to be dressed and lined up in front of said speakers. Some were complaining about how early they were waking up despite not having an actual life or job within the game. Lashawna even questioned if everyone looked like farmers. Once everyone was dressed and quickly showered, everyone met on their team colored mats at the beginning of the dirt trail that led to their cabins. Some of the cast even had a few seconds to start some brief conversations and say good morning to each other. As the pleasantries occurred, Cody saw that Eva was listening to a music player that she brought with her. He tried to ask if this was a personal item that each camper selected as a comfort from the outside world. However, Eva saw his hand first out of the corner of her eye and jumped to the conclusion that he was attempting to steal it. She the responded by attempting to bit him, thinking that he would draw his hand away and leave her alone, both of which he did. Eliza had seen this scene and tried to talk to her about it, but at that moment Chris had decided to begin the day's affairs.

"Morning guys. Hope you slept well. Screaming Gophers, as you can see from the new Killer Bass team, Ezekiel was voted out at last nights' elimination ceremony."

The gophers saw that the fuzzy cap wasn't amid the others on the red mat. They were all quite surprised since nobody with a chicken hat was sent home. After some of the surprise wore off, Chris began to explain what they would be doing today.

"Well, I hope you're ready because today's challenge begins in exactly one minute."

"Oh, excuse me. I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast."

After some laughed and others nodded at Owen's comment, Chris explained his planned schedule further.

"Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen... right after you complete your 20-kilometer run around the lake."

Everyone was shocked that they had yet another seemingly impossible challenge right after their cliff dive two days ago. Eliza made a remark to make sure she wasn't mishearing hearing anything.

"Wait, isn't it usually called a 5k run, because 20 sounds like we're running with the bulls."

"We did consider that, but unfortunately, some of our producers thought running with bulls would be considered "life-threatening", so you'll have to make do with each other… and if it were a 5k, the guys who made the map to this place would have to put in overtime."

While some of the cast chuckled and others groaned at the inability to escape their current situation, Eva decided to take a more vocal approach and started walking towards Chris with the same look she had previously reserved for Ezekiel; ticked off.

"Oh, so you're funny now. You know what I think would be funny!?"

Seeing her rage, Duncan and Geoff tried to forcibly hold her back while Courtney and Eliza tried to calm her down.

"Eva! Try to control your temper…

"Courtney's right. Plus, we're on TV."

Sighing at the now missed opportunity that she had, Eva had to make do with some mild back-talk.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?"

To which Chris replied, "A little… you have 30 seconds to gather at the starting line."

" **Okay, that girl Eva… has got to get a handle on her temper. We've only been here four days and she's already thrown her suitcase out a window and broken the lock on one of the bathroom doors." – Courtney**

Once everyone was at the starting line, both teams got into their running positions and waited for Chris to give the signal to start.

"Okay runners… on your marks… get set… Go!"

Once they were given the signal, everyone took off on the path. Some were sprinting in the hopes that they would finish the race early, while others started at a slow jog to conserve their energy. As the race continued, those who had sprinted were tired early on and assumed a walking pace to recover their stamina, while those who were jogging kept going and passed the walkers. As they did, Heather walked along and minded her own business, even as she was almost tripped by the people around her. As she walked on, she came across Owen lapping up water with his tongue, and was mumbling about how exhausted he was.

"Can't… catch… breath… must… have… condition!"

As Lashawna was passing the two, Heather made a remark about Owen's current position to which Lashawna attempted to quarrel with the other girl.

"Yeah, it's called over-eating. Look into it."

"And what's your excuse… you skinny… annoying… hoo… I'm too tired for insults."

" **I don't run… and I definitely don't run in high heel wedges." – Heather**

At that moment, Chris had made an announcement that somewhat scared the other contestants.

"Pick it up people! Oh, and if someone doesn't make it back by dinnertime, they might not eat tonight!"

To which Heather whispered her dismay under her breath; "Oh! I hate him so much."

She then proceeded to walk over Owen to avoid getting her shoes dirty and proceeded along the path. As the day wore on, the players eventually made it to the main lodge, thankful that they had finished. At this point, it came down to who had their whole team at the lodge first. The Killer Bass were only waiting on Harold, while the Screaming Gophers were still waiting on Lashawna, Owen, Noah, and Jesse. Suddenly, everyone was brought out of their thoughts as Jesse entered the lodge and placed his hand on his teams' table to keep himself from collapsing. Trent quickly handed Jesse his canteen, one of which everyone had received after the run. Then Izzy walked up to him and asked if he was still well.

"Hey, are you feeling alright?"

"I'm running on adrenaline, but yeah I'm fine."

Jesse then proceeded to sit cross-legged on the floor and continue drinking from his canteen. Twenty minutes later, Owen came barging in with Lashawna in tow and Noah slung over his shoulder.

"Clear a table, STAT!"

Noah was breathing heavily, which Owen thought was a warning sign of something bad, and proceeded to do chest compressions, before Gwen stopped him.

"Hey! I think he just needs some water."

After a few sips of water, Noah condition seemed to have returned to normal. Knowing the race was almost over, Lashawna breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ah! We made it!"

After everything calmed down, Courtney took another look at who had finished the race and noticed something was off.

"1, 2, 3, 4… wait a minute, we just lost!"

That was the moment that Harold stumbled in, breathing heavily!

"What took you so long? We just lost the challenge!"

"I think I'm having heart palpitations."

Just as Courtney had finished berating Harold, Gwen had started to connect the dots herself.

"Hey, wait a minute. If they just lost… then that means we won the challenge."

As the news made its way around the lodge, all the Gophers cheered as the Bass hung their heads in shame. After the brief celebration however, Chris had made a shocking announcement.

"Woah, there, hold your horse's guys. That wasn't the challenge."

"What did you just say?"

As Gwen asked that question, reactions changed as the Bass breathed a sigh of relief and the Gophers stared with wide eyes and open mouths.

"I only said that whoever didn't make it here by dinnertime might not eat. I never said anything about invincibility. You guys need to pay more attention."

"I'm working on it."

After Jesse made some people laugh with that last comment, Chris walked over to a covered table and grabbed the cloth covering many items.

"Since you guys worked hard on the race today, tonight's dinner menu is a special treat. Who's hungry?"

As he finished his sentence, Chris gently lifted the large cloth to reveal a Thanksgiving-themed buffet. The menu consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, baked beans, stuffing, and assorted rolls and breads. Sounds of 'ooh', 'ah', and 'yum' could be heard all over the room.

" **After three days of nothing but brown sludge, I almost cried when I saw that buffet." – Gwen**

" **And then I saw it… the buffet table. There was turkey, and mashed potatoes, and baked beans in maple syrup… it was incredible." – Owen**

Everyone had spent the next half hour eating as much as they could eat to recover their strength. After everyone had their fill, some had upset stomachs while others were struggling just to stay awake. Before everyone could call it a night though, Chris had made another announcement.

"Okay Campers, time for part two of your challenge."

"I thought eating was the second part."

The teams groaned at the fact that they still had something to do today. Before they could proceed, Gwen and Heather voiced their exhaustion.

"What more do you want from us?"

"Weird goth girl is right, haven't we been through enough?"

Chris thought for a moment and then continued.

"Um, let me think about that… no. It's time for… the Awake-a-thon!"

To which Owen replied, "The what-a-thon?"

"Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility and the losing team will vote to send someone home."

Denying their current situation, Gwen decided to ask if this was part of a bigger plan that all took place throughout the day.

"So, what you're saying is that the 20k run and the turkey eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?"

"That's right, Gwen."

"Man, he's good."

As everyone admired how methodical Chris was to his part in the show, moved everyone along to the central grounds to start the next part of the challenge. Before which people were taking bets on how long the awake-a-thon would last, with most bets placed at around the one-hour mark.

 **TIME PASSED: 2 HOURS**

All 23 of the remaining players were still awake and employing their own strategy of staying awake. Owen thought the challenge seemed easy…

"Whoo! Stay awake for 2 hours? I can do that in my sleep. Whoo-hoo!"

However, with that said, Owen immediately fell to the ground and fell asleep, leaving both teams on even playing ground. Others thought this challenge would be hard, but others, such as Gwen, thought it was quite boring.

"This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life."

To which Trent replied "Eh… could be way worse."

"Oh, yeah? How?"

"I could be stuck here without you to talk to."

With that comment, Jesse gave a 'aww' sound resulting in a swift push from a flustered Gwen and a suspicious look from Heather.

" **So, my strategy is to get two other campers to form an alliance with me and take to the final 3. The only question is: who can I find that is either desperate or dumb enough to do whatever I say?" - Heather**

As the challenge wore on, Lindsey was standing on her head attempting to rush her blood to her brain, a task that Beth also wanted to take part in. With these two gopher girls acting very odd, Heather had her answer on who she wanted to rope into her plan.

"Lindsey! Beth! Can I talk to you for a sec?"

After taking the other two girls away from the central grounds, Heather filled them in on her plan, with both Lindsey and Beth unaware that they would only be her pawns.

"Okay, I have a plan to get me and two other people into the final three, and I chose you guys. You should know that this is a VERY big deal. I am placing my trust in you and trust is a two-way street."

The two other girls were hanging onto every word and were excited at what Heather was promising.

"So, you'll do anything I say?"

To which both agreed and Lindsey started to fangirl "Eeee! We're going to the final three! EEEE!"

" **Oh! My! Gosh! Heather's taking me and Lindsey to the final three. I'm going to the final three! I'm going to the final three! I wonder what will happen then…" – Beth**

After their little celebration, Lindsey brought up an idea that she thought might help her new friends.

"Speaking of alliances, you know who I think could really help us out."

As Heather saw Lindsey gazing at Tyler, she knew she had to lay down the law, and fast.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, he can't join us."

"Why not?"

"Because he's on the other team."

"So?"

''SO'?! You can't inter-team date, it's like, against the alliance rules."

"There are rules?"

"Remember what I just said about trust, Lindsey? Of course, you can always leave the alliance. If you do though, I can't protect you from getting kicked off."

"No, I-I wanna be in the alliance."

"Good. Then it's settled."

Slightly demoralized with the ultimatum in front of her, Lindsey had no choice but to follow Heather's rules and further herself from Tyler, which she found to be quite difficult after Tyler waved at her, making her smile.

" **Heather said that he couldn't be in our alliance… she never said I couldn't like him." – Lindsey**

Unbeknownst to them, Jesse had invited Gwen, Trent, Izzy, and Lashawna to share his luxury item, a pack of playing cards, with a game of go fish. The five gophers were sharing about their lives and likes and trying to know each other better. After four games, Izzy noticed the missing girls and decided to say something.

"Uh, some of our team is missing."

"Lindsey and Beth are probably having some girl talk, but I'm fine if Heather don't ever come back."

"Yeah, she's a bit too high maintenance for me to deal with."

After those comments from Lashawna and Gwen respectively, Jesse came out with the idea that he had formed yesterday during the assembly of the hot tubs.

" **My strategy to find people that I believe I can trust and get along with to a certain extent that I would want to play alongside them and create an alliance amongst those people. But First, I need to see how they really think of someone like Heather." - Jesse**

"You think those three girls are making some sort of… alliance between the three of them."

"I dunno… it's kind of early for that."

That remark from Trent made Jesse think that since these were people he was having a good time with, he might have to tell them about what he overheard.

"I didn't wanna bring this up just yet, but there's this… pattern with her."

Which made Gwen ask: "What do you mean?"

"I overheard Heather talking to Lindsey during the hot tub thing… and she said 'Lashawna's going down' and 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. I don't think she likes you very much, Lashawna."

After Jesse shared his information, the five in the circle were dead silent. The rest of the team didn't seem to care since they were too tired, but the air felt thick nonetheless. After processing this, Lashawna seemed irritated.

"I figured she was lying about my earrings, seemed a little forced. But I don't know why she don't like me so much."

Everyone was soon caught up in a frenzy of 'yeah we like you' and 'Heather's so mean' that they seemed to come together even more. Eventually Lashawna asked Jesse: "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"I-I still wanted to give Heather a chance, you know, see if she's still good somewhere. And you were mad enough at her, I didn't think our team needed another fight."

"It's okay, boo, you just tryin' to look out for me. No harm done."

"You are someone that I want to trust; all of you. I really want to play this game with people that I know I can trust and I think that's you guys."

After Jesse explained himself, Izzy, Gwen, and Trent looked at each other and felt that they were around good people (or in Gwen's case, people she thought she could tolerate).

"Yeah, I think you guys are pretty cool too."

"I know that this got a lot more fun with you guys."

"If I had to make a team on trust, I would want to work well with them, and I think we might be able to do that."

Trent, Izzy, and Gwen each gave their respective opinions, Jesse suggested something that he hoped the others around him would agree on.

"I think we should… If we all trust each other, we could probably make it pretty far in the game."

The others in the group thought it over for a few moments and started nodding their heads. Each of the others replied in their own way.

"I think I can get on board with that."

"This feels really awesome."

"Yeah, let's do it!"

"Oh, I'm down with this right here, y'all, it's going down."

Jesse then placed his hand in the middle and everyone placed theirs on top of his to symbolize their unity.

"We trust each other, we tell each other about what's going on, we keep each other safe. Alright?"

As everyone nodded their heads, the five gophers knew that they were all a team now, and Heather would have to watch her back.

" **Heather showed what kind of player she really is, and it's about time I showed the player that I am. She's already drawn the line in the sand, and if I have to draw the other side, so be it." – Jesse**

After the new alliance had been formed, Gwen reminded them that they were still in challenge mode and separated, agreeing to meet again after the challenge was over. As Heather, Lindsey and Beth returned, Eva started to walk away. As she did, she was unaware that she had accidentally dropped her music player. Heather did seem to notice, so she quietly walked over to where it dropped, stretched to appear to wake herself up, grabbed the music player, and walked back to her team. When she sat down, Lindsey noticed what Heather had and decided to ask her about it.

"Uh, isn't that Eva's music player?"

"Yep."

"Well, isn't she gonna get like… really mad when she realizes it's gone?"

"That's exactly what I'm counting on."

 **TIME PASSED: 4 HOURS**

As the challenge wore on, staying awake was starting to become a harder and harder task. After Owen, Noah had fallen sideways an hour later and Bridgette had laid her head to sleep half an hour later, and the teams were still even at ten members each. Courtney was jogging in place with her eyes glued on the invincibility totem, which was something Geoff was curious about.

"Uh… what are you doing?"

"Hah, hah, if I exercise, hah, my brain is stimulated, hah, hah, into thinking it's awake."

" **I figured that if I kept moving, I could outlast all of them. I just had to keep my eye on the ball. – Courtney.**

"…Well, whatever works."

After that nonchalant comment from Eliza, Katie and Sadie were telling each other how tired they were, with their 'oh my gosh' and their 'me too', and soon fell asleep in a way that their leaning postures kept them from hitting the ground, earning a 'How?' from Harold. It was also apparent that this challenge was affecting the players' minds. As Tyler was trying to stay awake, he could have sworn that a bear attacked Katie and Sadie, which caused him to scream. After a while though, he calmed down. Attempting to stay standing, D.J. tied himself to a tree, but unfortunately, there was also the rare occasion that a person could fall asleep standing. Seeing the big guy down, Gwen called out 'Timber!', which made Jesse chuckle. The Bass, however, were not in the mood to laugh, as they were now down 10 to 7.

 **TIME PASSED: 6 HOURS 45 MINUTES**

Everyone was placing all their concentration on staying awake for as long as they possibly could. No one had fallen since D.J. was untied from his tree. Seeing that nobody was paying attention to her or her new comrades, Heather decided to call an alliance meeting.

"We should talk about our strategy."

However, seeing that Lindsey didn't seem awake, Heather gave her a small nudge with her elbow. After trying to open her eyes, Lindsey gave into her fatigue and fell asleep on her way to the ground. Trying to get Beth's attention as well, Heather saw that she had already fallen backwards, indicating that she was out. As this was going on, Gwen and Trent were playing the 'favorites' game, sharing their likes and becoming a little closer.

"Okay. Favorite song?"

"'She would be loved'. Favorite color."

"Um… midnight blue."

"Ooh, mysterious. I like that… oh, don't fall asleep yet. Okay, quick, favorite movie moment."

"You're gonna think it's cheesy."

"I promise I won't."

"Okay… the kiss scene at the end of that road trip movie… you know the one with the guy and the three girls."

"I know the one, ha-ha, you like that movie?"

"Not the movie as a whole, but… the emotions form the lead actress coupled with the music… I dunno, I was… emotional."

"Really, you, emotional. The first three days here you barely said anything to anyone."

"Yeah, but I'm more talkative around people I know. More so with people that I like."

"That so? How am I doing so far?"

"Yeah, uh, I think I know you enough to have a pleasant conversation."

"Huh… good to know."

Eventually, the two new friends laid on their backs with the tops of their heads almost touching so that they could both see the stars and still hear each other. After making sure they were both still awake, they spent some time showing each other constellations and visible planets. After a while, Jesse and Lashawna walked over and snapped them back to reality.

"Hello… earth to lovebirds."

With that comment from Jesse, the pair was startled out of their trance and stood straight up with waving hands and insistence that their situation wasn't what it looked like. After this, Gwen noticed that Justin hadn't moved since the challenge started.

"Look at him! He's like a statue! He hasn't moved in almost… 7 hours!"

The next few moments were spent trying to phase Justin out of his trance with sudden sounds and hand gestures in front of his face. Noticing that nothing had worked while admiring his concentration, Gwen gave him a small tap on his shoulder, which caused him to wobble… and reveal his secret. His eyelids, on closer inspection, were painted over, and while it was a clever idea, Chris disqualified him from the challenge, leaving the teams even at 7 members each.

 **TIME PASSED: 10 HOURS 40 MINUTES**

 **Day 5**

The challenge continued as there were still people awake until sunrise. Two hours after Justin was disqualified, Harold, Courtney, Tyler, Geoff, and Eliza had fallen asleep on the Killer Bass while Cody, Izzy, and Lashawna had done the same on the Gopher side. This left two Bass; Eva and Duncan against four Gophers; Gwen, Trent, Heather and Jesse. Everyone was snapped out of their dazing slumber when they heard screaming followed by Noah running frantically and Cody swimming in the lake. Choosing to worry about it later, the remaining participants saw Chris come back with a cup of coffee. Duncan couldn't believe his eyes and asked for verification.

"Is that real coffee?"

"Yep. Nothing like a good ole cup of joe to make you feel awake and alert."

At this point, Gwen tried to dash to Chris, but tripped and only strong enough to pull on his shirt while reaching for his coffee in vain.

"You gotta hook me up, man. I'll settle for the grinds. Anything!"

"Alright, alright, just calm down and head back to your spot." Once Gwen had done so Chris continued. "Ok, I didn't think it would come down to this. You six have been awake for almost 12 hours. You must really want to win this one, whether it's for your team or for yourselves. This challenge wasn't designed to last this long and you've surprised everyone on staff. But the game still has a schedule, so we need to wrap this up. One thing that you guys may not know… is that when someone listens to calm music, it's easy to fall asleep."

After which, Chris pushed a button and a gentle melody started to play around the campfire.

"Oh, he's not serious."

Despite that comment from Gwen, it seemed that the music was indeed meant to make people fall asleep faster. Jesse was looking around for a stereo, but couldn't find anything.

"Where is that coming from?"

Just a few feet away, Chef Hatchet was playing a clarinet next to a river. Spotting the camera, he turns to say "What, you thought music was pre-recorded? I wish, but no, producers want to wait till AFTER the season to make an 'original and catchy soundtrack'. Original, my butt."

After only thirty minutes of this clarinet solo, Heather, Eva, and Jesse were out. It seemed that the Gophers could still win, but then Trent suddenly fell out as well, turning into a showdown of Gwen VS Duncan. Fifteen minutes later, the two opponents were staring each other down, only taking a break to drink from their canteen. Duncan tipped his upward to get the last few drops from the bottom, but doing so made him lean too far backwards, causing him to fall and fall asleep a few moments after the impact.

"Duncan is out. Gwen takes it! The Screaming Gophers win invincibility!"

After a small 'Yay!', Gwen was out like a light. The rest of the day went by quickly as everyone was still dead tired. Some were exhausted simply trying to watch the rest of the challenge and everyone decided to call it a night in the middle of the afternoon.

 **Day 6**

The next day, all the campers decided to sleep in. Those who were still in the challenge up till the last moments slept until noon, making it a little harder for the bass to confer among themselves about tonight's elimination. Eva decided to go on a jog, but when she checked her pocket, her music player wasn't there.

"Where is it?... where is it, where is it, WHERE IS IT?"

All of Eva's shouting woke up everyone in the cabin. Trying to understand why she was being so loud... again… Eliza decided to ask what was wrong.

"Uh… Eva, is everything okay?"

"Where is my music player? One of you must have stolen it. I need my music!"

Eva asked everyone in her team if they had stolen it. After she 'interrogated' everyone, Bridgette offered her a different perspective.

"Eva, I don't think anyone here would steal from you. Maybe you just dropped it somewhere."

Once Eva heard this, she realized that she let her anger loose again and slowly backed away.

"Dropped it?... Oh… Yeah, I see. I'll… go and… retrace my steps. Hahahaha."

Once she had left, everyone else looked at each other and then went their separate ways. Whispers of 'she made me feel really uncomfortable' and 'I felt really scared' started spreading around the Killer Bass. Eva spent the rest of the day looking for her music player. She looked around the lake where everyone ran, in the dining hall, and around the main fire pit, but it wasn't anywhere to be found. Eva was ready to pull out her hair when Heather walked up to her with a smile on her face and walked up to her.

"Hey Eva. Are you okay, you seem upset."

"My music player's gone. I don't know if someone stole it or whatever, all I know is that it was in my pocket, and then it was gone."

Pleased with how the conversation was going, Heather took out the music player from her pocket.

"You don't mean this, do you? I was wondering who it belonged to. I found it by the campfire pit. You must have dropped it."

"Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

After Eva took her music player back, the cameraman told her that it was time to head off to elimination.

"Oh, I have to go. Thanks, again!"

"Sure thing" said Heather, as she walked away with a smile.

" **Turn a team against its own members… easiest trick in the book. Eva is one of their strongest players, and now she might go home. I am so running this game." – Heather**

The Bass grabbed their torches and started walking back to the elimination grounds. On the way, there was a little fire that everyone used to relight the torches as they walked back to the 'dock on the river'. Everyone decided on where to sit and placed their torch behind their designated stool with their bags to the side. After everyone took their seats, Chris began the unpleasantries.

"Back to back losses. D.J., you said that the last vote was to help unify the team. Does it seem unified yet?"

"Um, I know that there are some forward personalities, but yeah, I think we're starting to come together."

"Harold, D.J. mentioned there are some 'forward personalities'. Do you have an idea on who he means?"

"I know that Duncan is one of them. He started to push the rest of us guys to find out who voted for Zeke the other night."

"Is that true Duncan."

"Yeah, and I got my answer. It was D.J., and I understand why he did it, but it still came as a surprise to me."

"So D.J., you were including Duncan as forward."

"Yes."

"Katie, you've known these people for 6 days now. Is there anyone that you think might fall in the same category as Duncan?"

"I think that, if anyone else has a 'forward personality' it would have to be Eva."

"Eva, do you disagree with Katie?"

"No, I mean, I know that I can overreact a bit when something happens, but I don't think I'm as forward as Duncan."

"No, you are."

"Something you'd like to say Courtney?"

"This afternoon, Eva said that she lost her music player and then she accused everyone around her of stealing it."

"Eva, accusing someone of stealing is pretty serious."

"I thought that if someone 'did' steal it, that I could get them to give it back if they felt guilty."

"By intimidating them?" exclaimed Courtney.

"Can I say something?" asked Bridgette. "Eva, you need to look at all the possibilities before you just start blaming people. You didn't even check if you might have dropped it."

"Is it true Eva, did you just drop it?"

"Yeah… Heather found it by the fire pit and gave it back. I know that what I did was wrong, but sometimes you have to force your point across to make people understand how important it really is."

"Sadie, did you feel like you understood how important Eva's music player was?"

"I know that she hasn't been without it since all of our luxury items belong to us, but at that moment, I was just hoping Eva wouldn't charge after me."

"Tyler, it looks like this team still has some trust issues."

"Yeah, I mean, I know there's someone who doesn't always fit on the team, but they still need to be counted on to pass the ball, hit the puck… we gotta trust each other or else we'll keep coming back here."

"Geoff, do you think there might be another surprise to this vote too?"

"I think the only one who'll be surprised is the dude or dudette that goes home tonight."

"With that said, it's time to begin the vote. Tyler, you're first."

Tyler went up to vote.

Then Harold went up to vote.

Then Bridgette went up to vote.

('EVA'): **"Eva, I recommend some anger management classes. It'll be a huge help for you."**

Then D.J. went up to vote.

Then Geoff went up to vote.

Then Courtney went up to vote.

Then Duncan went up to vote.

Then Eva went up to vote.

('HAROLD'): **"We need to be as strong as we can be, and we're only as strong as our weakest link."**

Then Katie went up to vote.

Then Eliza went up to vote.

Then Sadie went up to vote.

"I'll be back with the votes."

Chris left everyone alone for a moment, leaving everyone to their thoughts. Most of the Bass, except for a mildly nervous outlier, felt confident that there would not be anything unusual this time.

"You have all cast your votes and made your decision. The camper who has received the most votes must leave the elimination grounds immediately. And now, the votes."

"…The first vote is against… …Harold…"

Harold was a bit surprised to see his name come up, and hoped it was only Eva.

"…Eva, one vote for Harold, one vote for Eva…

…Eva…

…Eva, three votes for Eva, one vote for Harold…"

Harold started to calm down more every time Eva's name was read. Eva, however, started to feel tenser.

"…Eva…

…Eva, five votes Eva, one vote Harold…"

Eva knew she would need a miracle to be saved, but she still prepared herself for any other votes against her nonetheless.

"…

…The second person voted out of Total Drama Island…Eva. That's six, no need for the rest. You need to bring your torch over."

Eva cringed a little at hearing that she was out. Letting out a sigh, she got her bag and picked up her torch. Everyone found it a little difficult to look at Eva, so they continued looking straight ahead.

"Eva, your game is over."

Chris put out Eva's flame and Eva rubbed her head at cursed at how she let herself slip.

"Time to head out."

Eva proceed to walk off into the dark path seemingly leading nowhere. The rest of the team felt proud that they had a plan and everyone stuck to it. Chris brought them back to their senses with a few words.

"Well then, this vote may have been easy, but it looks like this team is off to a hard start. Grab your stuff and head back. I'll see you tomorrow."

Everyone then grabbed their things and left, hoping that they would fare better in the next challenge and avoid going back there.

" **I guess my temper got the better of me…again. I understand why they voted for me, but they still need to win challenges. The Killer Bass needs to get its' act together or none of them are gonna win. All I can say now is 'good luck'… their gonna need it." - Eva**


	4. Chapter 4: Weak Effort or None?

**I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT JESSE AND ELIZA.**

Chapter 4: Weak Effort or None?

 **Day 7**

After the vote, everyone decided to go back to sleep, some of the Bass still drowsy from the awake-a-thon. It was a tad difficult to stay asleep however, as Harold had a habit of snoring. As morning came, the bass team still felt tired from their sleeping difficulty and rested their heads on the table. He made sure he was justified though, as he drew a marker mustache on Harold's face (which Harold liked even as others laughed at it). Duncan was sound asleep since, out of his team, he stayed awake the longest over the past few days. Some of the bass team tried to see if he was okay or if he needed anything, but whenever he responded, it was with words that would drive his charitable teammates away, such as 'stick it' and 'shut up'. Soon, the Gopher team came in and saw that Eva had been voted out, which came as a shock seeing as how she was one of the Bass' strongest players.

" **We are so sucking right now. Ok, yes, Eva was a psycho, but at least she was an athletic psycho." – Courtney**

After the gophers grabbed their breakfast, Gwen stated that she was barely able to keep her head up and nodded off, her forehead resting on the table. When she thought the rest of the group was too preoccupied to notice her, Heather gathered her alliance together and tried to remind Lindsay and Beth of some 'guidelines'.

"So, let's go over the rules one more time. Number 1, I am the captain of this alliance, so I get to make the rules. Number 2…Lindsay?"

"…Breaking the rules can result in getting kicked out of the alliance?"

"Good! Number 3, I can borrow any of your stuff without asking, but my stuff is strictly off-limits."

Lindsay had minor confusion with the last rule and said to Heather "I'm don't know about that last rule…"

"That's cool, I can change it…I can also find someone else to take to the final three with me."

Both Lindsay and Beth were shaking their heads at the thought of fending for themselves, showing they really wanted to work with Heather.

"Good. Wanna have some fun?"

At that point Heather stood up and started to taunt the Killer Bass.

"Hey, fish heads! Way to kick out your strongest player. Why don't you just give up now?"

Her trash talk earned an annoyed growl and a spoonful of Chef's 'oatmeal' flung aiming at Heather, but instead landed on Gwen when she moved out of the way and replied, "Missed me!"

After breakfast, everyone was left to do as they pleased. During this time, Courtney, Bridgette, and Eliza met up to talk. Courtney started the conversation by venting about Heather.

"I can't figure her out. One minute she helps Eva by returning her music player, and the next she's criticizing us about voting her off."

"The way she's playing the game is making her a lot of enemies really fast" said Bridgette.

To which Eliza replied, "If she thinks she can win by being all 'prom queen' on us, she's wrong."

"I'm actually glad that I can work with girls who aren't like her" said Bridgette.

"Me too. I think the three of us actually click really well" said Courtney.

"So… are we thinking of… starting an alliance or something?"

After Eliza had thrown out her idea, Bridgette and Courtney considered the idea, looked to each other and to Eliza, and started to smile.

"Yeah, I think that could work" said Bridgette.

"I'd like that. Yeah, I don't think they'd see us coming" said Courtney.

"Let's show this game some girl power" said Eliza.

After putting her hand in the air, the other girls did the same and made a scratching gesture while making a 'hissing cat' noise.

" **Heather may have her little 'team', but she doesn't have what I have with Bridgette and Courtney. Trust. Move over boys, the girls are taking control." – Eliza**

Meanwhile, on the shoreline, Jesse, Lashawna, Gwen, Izzy, and Trent met to air their own grievances about Heather. Gwen washed out her hair in the lake since her head wouldn't fit in the sink, and she already had a shower. Lashawna was particularly peeved.

"She's got nerve if she can tell the other team off like that. Girl's either gutsy, or she's crazy" said Lashawna.

"That was a little unnecessary. They feel bad enough, and us gloating about it just makes us look like jerks" said Trent.

"I definitely don't see her helping me with my homework anytime soon" said Jesse.

"Yeah, but that little 'oatmeal incident' didn't really help either" said Gwen.

"Yeah, but she's kicking them while they're down, of course they're gonna resist. Just like how people resist against eating stuff they don't like… like cantaloupe." said Izzy.

After a few moments of wondering how exactly Izzy knew that, Gwen decided to speak up again.

"The fact is, none of us like Heather, so why don't we just vote her out once we lose?" said Gwen.

"I think if nobody else does anything that raises a red flag, then we might have to send her home first" said Jesse.

The five finished their conversation and went their separate ways for the day. Everyone went about the day their own way and went to bed later that night.

 **Day 8**

Both teams were instructed to report to the sandbar on the outskirts of the woods. On the sandbar was a giant plank of wood with lines like a basketball court. The 'court' was surrounded by a giant wooden wall with two entryways and two sets of benches off to the side with an elevated seat in the middle. After the teams entered, Duncan, still exhausted, plopped onto one of the benched areas and sent a warning to his own team.

"Wake me up, and it'll be the last thing you do."

After Duncan's 'threat', Chris re-collected the invincibility totem from the Gophers and explained the rules of the challenge.

"Today's game is the classic game of dodgeball. The rules are simple to follow. If you get hit by a ball, you are off the field. If you catch a ball, the thrower is out and the catcher can bring another person out onto the court. You can use a ball to deflect a shot, but if the ball falls out of your hand, the blocker is out. Each round will be played with five members on each team. The first team to win three rounds wins invincibility. Gophers, to have a fair roster, you'll have to sit one person out of a round. It can be the same person every time or you can alternate, it's up to you."

After Chris finished explaining the rules, both teams were left to determine who would participate in each round, and who the Gophers would sit out.

"Okay, we can't afford to get lazy. The Killer Bass are going to try extra hard to catch up, so we need to be strong. Does anyone think that they're not good at dodgeball?" said Heather.

"Alright, I'll volunteer. Now let's see all you keeners get out there and dodge!" said Noah, despite some eye rolling after he said that.

The matchups for round one was D.J., Courtney, Katie, Tyler, and Harold for the Bass against Heather, Lindsay, Owen, Lashawna, and Cody for the Gophers. And once again, the smack talk from Heather began.

"Bring it on, fishies, otherwise winning three in a row just won't be as satisfying."

"Oh, you're going down! We're gonna bring the dinner to the table, and then we're gonna eat it!" said Tyler, which was followed by some annoyed looks.

"Both teams ready… Go!"

With Chris's go, Chef blew the whistle and the challenge started. Cody started with a throw that almost hit Tyler square in the head, but Tyler wound up a shot by spinning his whole body and connected… with Sadie. Not paying any attention, Owen threw a hardball right at Tyler's gut and scored. Tyler then took his seat on the bench, while earning a minor glare from Sadie. The game resumed and Harold called out: "Time to unleash my wicked skills."

To which Lashawna replied: "Yeah? Then bring it string bean, let's see what you got!"

Harold then proceeded to jump and slammed the ball into the ground and into the air… only to land gently near Lashawna's feet, who used said ball to throw Harold out. Lindsay, still looking quite confused, easily had the ball knocked out of her hands by a ball thrown by Katie. Seeing that Tyler gave her a sympathetic look, Heather took one ball and aimed at Tyler, which landed somewhere a man never likes to get hit. Seeing what happened, Courtney brought up the issue to Chef, but Heather simply replied with "Oopsies, slipped." Angry with her answer, Courtney threw a ball at Heather, which Owen managed to catch. Courtney was taken off the field and Heather pointed in the direction of Gwen and Jesse. They both stood up, but got confused as to who Heather was pointing to. With a response of "Just get onto the court. Now." Jesse, a tad flustered, quickly ran towards his teammates. For the next ten minutes, D.J.'s strong throws kept the Killer Bass in the round until only Jesse was left, thanks to some impressive dodging. He continued to dodge until most of the balls were on the Gophers' side of the court. Jesse's threw two, which both Katie and D.J. dodged easily. Jesse then threw a lower ball that landed on D.J.'s knee, sending him out. Katie and Jesse both threw balls at each other for a few seconds before he hit Katie on the hand, which she tried to catch, but landed on the floor as she ran towards it. The Gophers had their first win on the board.

"Dude, how'd you do that?" said Owen.

"You guys are good with air throws, I'm better when I'm aimed lower to the ground" said Jesse.

After another feeling of defeat, bass gathered to discuss a change in their plan.

"We can do this, we just have to believe in ourselves" said Harold.

"Oh, I believe… I believe you suck!" said an angry Courtney.

"Yeah, you throw like a girl!" said Tyler, with no room to talk.

"Guys, if we're fighting among ourselves, we won't be able to fight them" said Eliza.

"Look, what happened with Sadie was just a warm-up throw. I can dominate this game, just get all the balls to me" said Tyler.

"…Alright, just try to aim for the other side, alright?" said Courtney.

Meanwhile, one the Gophers' side of the court…

"…Alright, Noah, you're up" said Heather.

"You know, you did such an awesome job on the last game that I don't wanna mess up your mojo" said Noah, with Heather looking slightly annoyed.

The second game started with Katie, Sadie, Tyler, Geoff, and Bridgette for the Bass and Beth, Izzy, Trent, Owen, and Lindsay for the Gophers. When the whistle was blown, the Bass gathered four balls to Tyler and he began the same technique as before. The four balls were flung in different directions. One towards Chef and Chris respectively, with a warning from Chris to 'watch the face', one ball flying into the Gopher's bench, and one thrown right at Lindsay, which connected right in her face. With a 'finally!' from Courtney, a frantic Tyler ran to see if Lindsay was alright.

"Mmn… Tuh… Tyler? Oh my gosh, my face. How's my face?" said Lindsay, trying to get back on her feet.

Tyler winced a bit at the injury, a black eye that almost reached her nose, but saw that it wasn't that bad considering all the injuries he had seem playing sports. He responded with "It's… really… not that bad. You still look great!"

Responding with a smile, Lindsay also smiled and was happy at the comment. Lost in the moment, Tyler didn't even register to the fact that Tyler lightly threw a ball at him, to which Courtney facepalmed again.

"Hey, uh… since we're out for the round… you wanna go for a walk?" said Tyler, earning some whistling and hollers from everyone else.

Lindsay paused for a moment, as if trying to form an answer, which Tyler took as a 'no' until Lindsay said "Okay!"

Shocked at her answer, Heather tried to warn her alliance member of what exactly she was doing.

"Hey. Hey, get back here. You are SO close to being out of the alliance."

While this was going on, Owen lost his temper at how Lindsay got hurt and proceeded to take out one member of the opposing team with every ball that he threw. The last ball connected with Geoff right in the cheek and sent him tumbling backwards just as Tyler did to Lindsay.

"OOH! He dropped it like it was hot!" said Lashawna.

The Gophers congratulated Owen on claiming their second win and placing them within reach of winning a third challenge in a row.

"That… that was some pretty good aim right there, Owen" said Jesse.

"Hahaha… I don't know what got into me" said Owen.

"I'm glad 'someone' is trying today" said Heather, looking at Noah.

Looking up from his book, Noah gave his team a message of moral support: "Whoo-hoo! Way to throw those murder balls! Go, team, go" and returned to his book, disregarding the sarcastic comment from Heather regarding team spirit. Looking over to the other team, she decided to taunt them some more.

"Hey! It's two-zero. How does it feel to suck so much?"

"Not very good" said a down Harold.

Trying to give a reason to fight, Courtney gave a reply of "It's not over yet!" despite the thought in her head telling her 'It's so over'.

While regrouping the bass, Courtney laid down the reality of the situation to the rest of her team.

"Okay, this is really bad. One more game and we lose the whole challenge… again! We can't let that happen people. We need someone strong, someone mean, someone who will crush those stupid gophers into the dirt."

With Courtney's description, the only one they could think of with those characteristics was Duncan, who was still sleeping through the game. Suddenly remembering Duncan's threat, D.J. chimed in.

"Uh-uh, if we wake him up, he'll kill us."

"He won't kill us, guys, he wants to win too" said Courtney.

"Courtney's right. We need Duncan's fierceness to win this" said Harold.

"That's the spirit, Harold! Now go wake him up" said Courtney, earning a reluctant 'Why me?' from Harold.

"Because other than Tyler, you're the worst at dodgeball, and on the off chance that he does decide to kill you, you're the only one we can afford to lose" Courtney explained.

"I don't exactly agree with that reason. Maybe if we all wake him up, he'll feel angry at all of us, but realize that he can't win alone" said Harold, earning some light nodding from the other bass.

After deciding to wake him up together, Eliza quickly ran outside for a long tree branch that everyone could use to poke him awake. The first poke was placed lightly at Duncan's butt, so they decided to move the branch higher and ended up brushing against his ear piercing. Feeling the sensation, Duncan grabbed the branch and snapped it in two, while giving a glare to the rest of his team.

"You better have a really good reason for sticking this up my nose" he said.

Courtney, deciding to intervene, replied: "Look, we are down two-nothing. I can appreciate that you need a little naptime, but we need your help."

"Oh, and why should I help you, darling?" said Duncan.

"Because I can personally guarantee you that if we lose this game, you'll be the one going home… darling" replied Courtney.

Weighing the options in his head, Duncan sighed and decided to assist his team.

"Fine, I'll play. On one condition, you do exactly what I say, when I say it" said Duncan. When the rest of the team nodded, he continued: "Okay, here's a strategy that I picked up on my first visit to juvie. It's called 'crush the new guy'.

As the bass discussed a new plan of attack, both teams decided on their players for the round. Courtney, Duncan, Geoff, Eliza, and D.J. went out for the Killer Bass as Izzy, Beth, Owen, Justin, and Lashawna went out for the Gophers. As the whistle was blown to begin the game, the bass dodged a few shots and when four players had a ball in hand, they each threw at a specific target… Owen. Confused, Owen was unable to dodge the four shots and landed on the ground. As the round continued, the Bass employed the same technique with all the other players and won the round, keeping them alive in the challenge. Seeing his team on the ground, Noah shouted: "Come on, a little effort out there, people!" which was not welcome at the time.

As they celebrated their victory, Courtney said "I think we should do the same thing all over again, so Harold, sit this one out too."

"But I sat the last one out" said Harold, to which Courtney replied: "It's for the good of the team."

Sighing in defeat, Harold walked over to the bench. Meanwhile, with the gophers, Heather tried to get everyone back on track.

"Okay, not that NOAH here cares, but we are not losing another game to these guys, got it? And where is Lindsay? Argh!" she said before leaving to look for her teammate. As she searched, she found Lindsay underneath the dock… where she was having a seemingly pleasant conversation, which Heather didn't take very well.

"This is so against the alliance rules! Do you even know what it is you're doing to us?" asked Heather, to which Lindsay apologized.

Trying to defend Lindsay, Tyler interjected with "Hey, why don't you just chill out?"

To which Heather replied with: "Why don't you… dodge this!" and throwing a kayak down and hurting Tyler, with his face in the opening hole. Back at the court, Heather brought Lindsay back to the bench and told her to sit still, to which Lindsay obeyed.

"How are we doing?" asked Heather.

"It's brutal… really brutal" replied Jesse, as another member went down due to the Bass' 4-ball-to-1-person strategy.

With both giving an annoyed look to him, Noah looked up from his book and said "Sports… not my forte, remember?"

"You know, you could actually give it a shot and pretend to care" said Heather, with another gopher falling and giving the bass their second win, to which she replied: "This is so unacceptable."

When Tyler came back, he took a seat on the Bass' bench, noticed by Courtney on the way back.

"Where were you?" asked Courtney, to which Tyler replied: "Nowhere."

"You were with that gopher girl, weren't you?" asked Courtney, to which Tyler replied: "No… Maybe… So?"

"So, she could have been getting you to spill all of our weaknesses to her" said Courtney.

"I don't think we have to worry about that Courtney. I think she's an apple short of a pie to do that" said Eliza, as Lindsay was making puppets out of her hands. Chris gathered everyone's attention to announce the last game.

"Okay, this is it. The final tie-breaking game. Winners take invincibility, the losers head to elimination."

After another sarcastic cheer from Noah, both teams gathered to discuss their game plans. The Killer Bass, knowing that the gophers would catch on to their trick, decided to alter their strategy.

"Okay, who's going in?" asked Duncan.

"I think it's my turn" said Harold, to which Courtney replied: "No way. We actually have a chance to win this."

As the rest of the red team nodded in agreement, Harold hung his head in defeat and walked back to the bench. After a few more minutes, Chris called both teams back to the court to start the final match.

"Gophers, Bass, let's send this sample to the lab and see what you're made of."

Chef blew the whistle to begin the last game, which was a showing of quick feet and fast hands from the gophers and accurate brute strength from the bass. As the game continued, there were many players being sent out of and back into the court. Another sarcastic 'chant' from Noah earned him a ball to the face and a remark from Heather about how sports really aren't his forte. Gwen also landed a hit on Courtney as payback for the oatmeal from yesterday, earning a high five from Lashawna. At the end of the 'battle', only two people were left. Owen for the Gophers against… Harold for the Bass.

"Sorry dude, but you gotta go down" said Owen.

"Good night, Harold" said Duncan, accepting the fate that his team might be heading back to elimination.

The two stared each other down with fierce determination, and they both knew that they had to give everything to win for their team. Owen threw ball after ball at Harold, but Harold dodged them with some movements that were like dancing and also leaned backward to dodge a ball aimed at his head. The display he showed was interesting, enough that even Noah looked up from his book in amazement. Courtney called a time-out to determine what to do in order to plan his next move and learn how he learned to dodge like that.

"Man, that boy's got dodge. Where'd you learn to do that?" asked Duncan, to which Harold replied: "Figure skating."

Harold, that was awesome, but dodging isn't enough" said Geoff.

Courtney started to give Harold a means to win: "He's right. To win this, you either have to throw him out…"

"Which we all know you can't do" Duncan interjected.

"… or catch the ball. Can you do it?" Courtney finished, to which Harold replied: "Definitely."

After a comment from D.J. to 'go catch that ball', Harold took his spot back on the court to try to catch Owen's shot. With the bass chanting his name, Harold started to get some confidence in him as Owen wound up his shot. With a loud 'Cowabunga', Owen threw with all his strength and seemingly hit Harold right in his gut and into a cross-legged sitting posture. However, as he stretched his arms out, Harold showed that the ball was in his hand, signaling that Owen was out.

"The Killer Bass win invincibility!"

As Chris shouted that phrase, the red team shouted in victory and hoisted Harold into the air as the invincibility totem was also lifted to him. After a loud "Why' from Owen, the Gophers felt the weight of their first loss as Chris walked over to them.

"Gophers… what happened?" he asked.

"What can I say, weak effort" said Noah, which earned a 'shut up' from Gwen, and agreeing nod from Heather, and everyone else except for some of the guys walking away.

"Touchy… what?... I'll tell you the team spirit here is severely lacking lately" said Noah.

" **I guess I'm kind of a role model now that I won the dodgeball competition. People will probably all want my autograph when the show is over and stuff." – Harold**

 **Day 9**

Everyone took the rest of the day yesterday to tend to their wounds and then went to bed. As the gophers contemplated who to send home, Jesse, Gwen, Izzy, Trent, and Lashawna decided to meet at the dock to discuss who should go home.

"So, I know we're all still gunning for Heather, but I just can't stand Noah right now" said Gwen.

"Yeah, I mean, I can understand if he's not good at sports, but that's no excuse to put the rest of us down" said Trent.

"Guys, I know that Noah was rude, but I thought we were going after Heather first" said Izzy.

"Oh, trust me girl, we all want her gone, but we want Noah gone too. What do you think, Jesse?" asked Lashawna.

"Noah was really unhelpful today, but if we at least try to understand why he didn't want to play… I think that will help us make our decision tonight" said Jesse, unsure of who to choose for the vote.

" **There are some people on our team who don't like Heather, and at the same time, Noah's actions have raised some red flags. I think gaining some perspective on the reasons behind their actions will give me more insight about their game and that will help me determine who I want to send home." – Jesse**

After grabbing their things, the gophers were all directed down the path deep into the forest area to the elimination grounds on the river. They all lined up in front of the stools and unlit torches with Chris facing them.

"Behind your seats is a torch to represent you, go ahead and grab the one with your name on it and light it in the firepit. In real life, fire represents many things; beauty, danger, the human spirit. But in this game, the fire on your torches will represent your life. If it's still there, you're still in the game, and when it's gone, you are too."

Everyone did as they were instructed while listening to Chris' monologue, making sure they didn't set anything else on fire as they took the torches back to their seats. After that was finished, Chris started his questioning.

"Okay, so nine days in, you've must have gotten a chance to know your team a little by now. Trent, how well would you say everyone is getting along on this team?"

"I think that some people making friends with others, some people might not like another person, and there are also others that are trying to be friendly to everybody" answered Trent.

"Beth, who do you think would try to be friends with everybody?" asked Chris.

"I think it's pretty clear that Owen is so out there and trying to connect with everyone. And you also have Jesse who listens to you when you tell him something, and gives an answer" said Beth.

"Owen, it does seem that you're always trying to make everyone here have fun. Is that just who you are?" asked Chris.

"Yeah, I like to think that I can be friends with people who are nice, people who want to know me and who I want to know. I'm hoping to make a lot of friends here" said Owen.

"Jesse, Beth also said that you are there to listen. Do you think you see yourself almost like Owen?" asked Chris.

"Uh, sorta. I know that I'm not always the most approachable person out here, but I try to listen to what is around me and try to be nice to people…who need me to be there… in that moment" said Jesse.

"Heather, on the opposite end of that, you've been trying to push the Killer Bass down every chance you get. Why aggravate people like that?" asked Chris.

"I know that to succeed in this sort of game, it's easier to win when the opponent loses confidence, so what I was doing, I was doing for the team" said Heather, earning a head-shaking from Lashawna.

"Lashawna, you were shaking your head. Do you think Heather has a different reason for her actions?" asked Chris.

"I don't think, I know. I can see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice, that she's not 'thinking about the team', she's just putting them down to put them down. That's all" said Lashawna.

"At least I'm doing something here" replied Heather.

"Do you think someone isn't doing something for the team Heather?" asked Chris.

"I know that Noah here didn't even want to participate in any of the rounds, he didn't volunteer to go out on the court first… he didn't want ANYTHING to do with this challenge" said Heather.

"Noah, it sorta sounds like you were the reason the team lost" said Chris.

"I don't think I'm the reason we lost. To be honest, I think we were doing so well because I was sitting out" said Noah, which earned an 'excuse me?' from Lashawna.

"In case you guys haven't noticed, I'm not the most physical person out here. Give me a mental challenge and I can show you what I can do" said Noah.

"Gwen, do you think that Noah's reasoning of 'I'm not physical, so don't put me in' be right?" asked Chris.

"No, I mean, I can understand if he was just scared of trying, but I think if Noah decided to play, then we might not be here right now" said Gwen.

"Noah, it seems like you just backed yourself into a corner" said Chris.

"I understand why you would think that, but I don't think I'm going home tonight, because there is at least one person on this team that I know is weaker than me, whether they know it or not" said Noah.

"Izzy, what do you think is better in a challenge and for a team; weak effort or none?" asked Chris.

"… I think, that if you at least try something, even if the response is good or bad, someone will know that you did it" said Izzy.

"With that said, it's time to begin the vote. Trent, you're first."

Trent went up to vote.

Then Jesse went up to vote.

('?'): **"I think there's more to your strategy than what I've already seen. Maybe we can talk about it over pizza."**

Then Justin went up to vote.

Then Izzy went up to vote.

Then Noah went up to vote.

('LINDSAY'): **"I know you are the weakest link on our team, and it definitely showed out there yesterday."**

Then Lindsay went up to vote.

Then Owen went up to vote.

Then Heather went up to vote.

('?'): **"One loser down, ten to go."**

Then Cody went up to vote.

Then Beth went up to vote.

Then Lashawna went up to vote.

('NOAH!'): **"You need to learn a little thing called respect. Turkey!"**

Then Gwen went to vote.

"I'll be back with the votes."

Chris left everyone to their thoughts, everyone believing that they had made an accurate decision on who performed the poorest at yesterday's challenge.

"You have all cast your votes and made your decision. The camper who has received the most votes must leave the elimination grounds immediately. And now, the votes."

"The first vote… Lindsay…"

Lindsay gulped at the sound of her name on the paper.

"… Noah. One vote for Lindsay, one vote for Noah."

Noah chuckled a bit at see his name.

"…Noah…

…Noah. Three votes for Noah, one vote for Lindsay."

Noah turned his head in a crooked manner to figure out how he received that many votes already.

"…Noah…

…Noah. Five votes for Noah, one vote for Lindsay.

…

…Noah. Six votes for Noah, one vote for Lindsay."

Noah had quietly whispered 'I can't believe this' as the realization hit him that he might lose sooner than he thought.

"… The third person voted out… Noah. That's seven, no need for the rest. You need to bring your torch over."

Noah had already stood up to collect his things, and as he grabbed his torch, he understood why the rest of the votes didn't need to be read.

"Noah, your game is over."

Noah could only watch as the rest of his game was extinguished right before his eyes, and could only chuckle as he thought the Gophers had lost their smartest player.

"Time to head out."

"Turkeys."

That was the last word Noah had said to his team before leaving, cementing in the others' minds that they did make the right choice tonight.

"Well then, it seems that you all decided that it was important to show effort to the rest of your team, but how much will you need to not come back here. Grab your stuff and head back. I'll see you tomorrow."

Everyone grabbed their bags and their torches, heading back to their cabin to recover their energy. They were probably going to need it.

" **I didn't realize that I was playing with a bunch of idiots when it came to strategy. Why would they keep someone who they know is weak when someone can help them in mental situations? Hopefully they realize that they made a mistake and get their act together, otherwise… their ship's gonna sink." - Noah**


End file.
